Past and Present
by Teh Trickster
Summary: Alone in the dark, the young cat is left to grieve for his loss of freedom. Yet, memories of the past, both joyous and painful, keep him company.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I had the inspiration for this fic as i read Anita Desai's "Fasting, Feasting". I liked the way she had both present and flashbacks in her books, and i wanted to do something like it.**

**Hence, this fic. I chose to do Fruits Basket, because they are my favourite manga, and i wanted to finish my fruits basket series on before starting on another story. Hence, my Eragon fic is now on haitus, until i finish this. Anyway, i also chose to do this on Kyo because after all, he is my favourite fruits basket character, and somehow, he really reminds me of my brother!**

**The main inspiration for this fic came from one of the manga scenes, where Kyo's biological father visited Kazuma and we learnt about his fate. I thought, what if Kyo was locked away? How would he deal with it? How would he be treated? However, i never tempted this because at that point in time, i wasn't ready to tackle it. I still needed desperately to think about what exactly is supposed to happen. Now, though, i managed to get most of it thought out, and i thought, why don't i do it now? Anyway, there aren't enough Kyo confinement fics out there.**

**Oh well, hope you like this! My first chapter, so please read and review, okay? I need to know if people like this before i go on with it.**

**Oh yes, one last thing: Disclaimer. Sadly, none of these characters belong to me. They belong Natsuki Takaya, the author of Fruits Basket.**

**Well, on with the story!**

Chapter 1

The Cat sighed and leaned back against the wall. Should he stand up and attempt a stretch, or should he just lie down on the floor and try to ignore the aches? After all, he had been sitting in this position for . . . well . . . at least it felt like a long time. At the same time, what was the use? He had no use for muscles at the moment. Or for the rest of his life, for that matter. He would not need anything for the rest of his life. What was the use anyway, since he would be stuck here for the rest of his life?

He gave a growl of frustration as once again, his hair fell over his shoulders. Instinctively, he reached down to grope for the strip of cloth he had used to tie his hair back. It took a few seconds, since he could barely even see anything, before he finally felt something silky. He lifted it up and held it before his eyes to make sure, yes, it was the strip.

He reached behind to fashion those obstinate strands of hair into something that crudely resembled a ponytail but then he stopped. Instead, he reached for a clump of hair and brought them into view. He gazed thoughtfully at them. They did not seem the least bit extraordinary, other than the bright orange colour. True, it felt a bit oily and he could see the few bits of greyish-greenish particles in them but other than that, it looked perfectly ordinary. Just something which had not been washed for a long time. Come to think of it, his clothes felt very grimy as well. When was the last time he had bathed? He clenched his fists as hard as he could before finally releasing the clump of hair.

Sighing, he untied the knot, slipped the strip under the grimy strands of hair and bound it up, away from his shoulders. It was a little crooked though, even though he did try his best to get it straight. He really should get a haircut. Short hair was much easier to manage anyway.

Hah! As if he could muster enough courage to actually talk to the guards.

Once again, his gaze went around the room. It was roughly the size of the room he stayed in when he was still living in Shigure's house, but it seemed much smaller. The floors were made of cold, rough stone, while the walls were made of unpolished wood. He knew that it had originally been dark brown in colour, but had faded to a dull grey throughout the ages it had been used. The Sohma family history had dated back since the times of the ruling Shogun, and probably even longer.

The floor was made of cold stone, so hard and rough it was hell to lie on them, especially after the guards had left. He literally could feel the sharp points cutting into him, whenever he lay down. He much rather preferred to sleep leaning against the wall. He knew that the stone had originally been white because he could see flecks of the colour on the stones, but these were little, because they were now covered with grey. Whenever he rubbed a finger against the ground, it came away grey. His clothes even became grey after a while.

Most painful of all were the bars on the one tiny window on the wall on his right hand side. If he looked in that direction, he could see the trees waving in the breeze . . . a few random birds flirting across the sky . . . the white, fluffy clouds . . . he sighed and turned away. It only made him feel even worse, especially since most of it was blocked by the iron bars at his window.

The cat room had probably been around even longer. It certainly smelt ancient. He could even see moss growing along the walls, and sometimes, when he leaned against the wall, he felt something soft at his back.

At that moment, he shivered, tucking his arms securely against his body. It was autumn now, he could see the leaves turning brown, smell the leafy smell and watch them slowly drift of the trees, disappearing from his sight when they drifted beyond his window. The bars prevented any of them from drifting into the room.

He had passed countless autumns by now, in this hellhole of a place, but he never tired of watching the seasons change. It kept him from total boredom.

It was getting much to cold now; he could barely stop himself from shivering. Finally, he reached beside himself and grabbed a cloth item from the shadows, wrapping it securely around him.

It was not much to look at, really. It was just a brown silk cloth, formally a yukata he had worn before it had become too tattered to wear.

It was really thanks to Hatori-san that he managed to actually get something new to wear. Hatori had come in to give the cat his periodic health checks, and he saw that the cat was wearing something so tattered he could not even identify what it was, and so covered with dust, dirt, grime and blood that he could barely even tell the original colour. He had left, the cat heard a few raised voices from beyond the locked door, and then Hatori returned again, this time bearing a threadbare orange yukata and a ragged slash of the same colour. The cat had been really thankful for the new clothes, and he was even more thankful that he could keep his old yukata, because it was something that kept him from shivering at night. He had more than enough of that experience.

He used to dig a mark with his fingers on the old wood, to signify the passing of days. He grouped them in lines of seven, so as to indicate that a week had passed. He had no idea why he did this; maybe it was to give him some knowledge of the passing of time, so at least he would know how long he had been in the cat room.

That was why he knew that after one year of being in the cage, he had tried to escape. After that one year of being locked away with hardly any human contact, he badly wanted to hear a human voice. He wanted to run for as long as possible, to feel the grass, the breeze, to know that he was free. It had grown during his captivity until finally, after one year, it became an exploding crescendo. He had laid in wait near the door, and when the guards opened it, he had rushed out and sped away as fast as he could, aiming for the main gate of the compound.

Needless to say, he never made it. He never even made it within fifty meters of the cat house before the guards pounced on him. Before his confinement, he had been able to run for miles on end without even stopping. Now, after a few steps, he was already panting for breath. He felt mortified, where on earth had all his strength gone to? Perhaps, it had been sapped away from him. Perhaps all those months in the cage had worn away all his muscles. It was barely any surprise though, now that he thought of it. He barely had enough space, or enough incentive, to actually move. Now, it caught up with him.

He had put up a huge struggle; there was no way he was going to allow himself to be dragged back into that cage, that small area so constricting that it suffocated every single breath he took. Most likely, he would be punished severely for his tenacity. He had already been treated far worse than he had even been treated in his entire life, and he really did not think he could survive if this treatment was worsened.

As much as he fought, he knew he couldn't keep this up, since he was already starting to pant. Soon, his struggles weakened, and the guards were able to bind his wrists in front of him with some thin, leather strips. He winced at the pain of those binds. They had literally squeezed his wrists so tightly that they really ached, and he had to bite his lips to keep from moaning out loud. He could not give those guards the satisfaction of seeing him express his pain.

This was why when they grabbed him by his hair and hauled him to his feet, he never made a sound. Instead, he hung his head, desperately trying not to look at anything tempting as he was marched back to the cage. When they reached his cage, they flung him against the wall, bound his ankles with the same leather material, with the same amount of tightness, and left him there, bound and completely unable to defend himself should they decide to do anything.

That had happened a year ago. So far, they had not even bothered to untie him. He kept quiet about his bonds, hoping that maybe they would release him if he behaved. So far, that never happened. Until now, he was still bound, and so tightly that he developed panda eye bags after a few days.

He hated those bonds to the very core of his identity, or rather, whatever was left of it. So far, those bonds, and the pain they caused, never served to remind him of how hopeless everything was. Almost every day, he had tried to bite at those bonds to at least lessen them but to no avail, the bonds had cut deep into his skin and were far too painful to even temper with.

The bonds resembled his life, really. He could never be free of them, just like the idea of being free of the cage – nigh impossible.

He would get used to it in time; he had the rest of his life to do so.

He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to shut himself off from his surroundings. It was only in his mind that he could really be free. He could imagine running through fields of grass, the view from the rooftop of Shigure's house, and of _her_. He could still remember the exact shade of brown that coloured her hair, her beautiful brown eyes, sparkling both with life, love, joy, and most frequently, concern. He had no idea of what she was doing now; he never dared to ask about her. He only hoped that she was truly happy, especially now that he was out of her life.

These thoughts then travelled to his schooldays. It was there that he realised his talents, what he actually was good at, something even Yuki could not beat him. Yuki beat him and everything really, and yet . . . it was this one thing that Yuki could not beat him at. He savoured that warm feeling, of finally knowing that he was actually good at something and not a worthless piece of junk everybody thought he was.

It was a wonderful feeling, and the memory of it kept him alive in the hellhole of both mind and body that he now inhabited.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi! My latest chapter! Hope you like it! Please read and reply okay? For all those you have reviewed, thanks so much! Hope you've received my replies and thanks!**

**Sorry this is so rushed . . . the author's note that is, I took almost a week to write the chapter, but it's late at night and I desperately need to go to sleep so I can wake up early tomorrrow to go to school. I promise I'll write more for the author's note next time, 'kay?**

**Oh well, see you soon! Til the next chapter comes up, bye!**

Chapter 2

Kyo Sohma gave a tiny smile as he stared outside the window. He was lucky enough to actually gain a window seat. He had come in late during his first year in Kaibara High School, and all the window seats had been neatly filled. They were probably the first to go. Or maybe, it was the back row that filled first, then the window seats. Either way, he had been unlucky to gain neither, but ended up in the very first row.

This year though, they were moved to a new classroom, and the moment Kyo stepped through the door, he had immediately raced to his favourite seat, the one in the very middle. He had read in one of his favourite mangas that if you sat in the front rows, you were right in front of the teacher. If you sat in the back row, the teacher would call on you to answer questions, thinking you were sleeping, or at least, not paying attention. In the middle, they tended to leave you alone.

Obviously, he was not the only one with this sentiment, the moment he raced into the classroom, his fellow classmate and _her_ best friend, Arisa Uotani, was behind him in a split second. He reached his favourite seat first and plopped down on it, and found her glaring at him. It was pretty obvious which seat she had wanted.

He stuck out his tongue at her. "Ha-ha, I win, yankee!"

If anything, her glare grew more intense. "Well, I would have gotten that seat if the class aisles were thicker!"

His smirk only grew wider. "But they weren't!"

She returned his smirk. "Or maybe, I could force you out"

"Oh really," he returned. "And how . . ."

At that moment, Mayuko-sensei came into the class, and Uotani had no choice but to drop into the seat behind him, otherwise, she would end up being at the edge of Mayuko-sensei's cutting tongue and really, nobody wanted that. "I'll get you for that, carrot-top!"

Kyo did not look back at her, he was savouring the fact that finally, he had managed to win something he wanted badly, and as it was already so rare that he had the chance, he was going to enjoy it for as long as it lasted.

He loved the view outside his window. It was a wonderful distraction because the fact was, lessons could be boring. The window was a wonderful place to stare out of, because he could literally feel the ever-present tension melt out of his body. He loved the way the breeze blew his hair about; blowing past his face . . . it was so delicious to feel the coolness. He loved the way the leaves of the surrounding trees blew with the breeze, their different shades of dark olive, bright green, and during autumn, light brown, yellow, sometimes red.

Most of all, he loved staring at the birds in the sky as they wheeled about in the sky, flapping their soft, feathery wings. He envied them; they could fly at will, flying high in the sky, beyond human behaviour and cruelty, malice. He loved the way they seemed to be enjoying themselves, calling out to one another with their shrill cries, inviting all to join in the fun and games. His life on earth could not be more different, and those birds were a wonderful distraction. Sometimes, he even pretended he was one of them . . . maybe an orange bird?

At that moment, he felt a poke in his side. He literally leaped to his feet and whirled in the direction of his antagonist, only to stop short when he saw Arisa Uotani smirking at him. "Teach just called your name, carrot-top. What could you have been dreaming of anyway, with that blank space between your ears?"

Kyo glared at her. "Why, you . . ."

"Sohma Kyo!" This time, the shout came from the front of the classroom. He turned; face heated red, to face another smirk, this time, from Mayuko-sensei. She waved a pink slip in front of almost everyone in the class, who anyway, were too busy looking at their own to pay attention to anything that was going around them.

Mayuko sensei waved that pink slip of paper again. "Shall I read out what's on this in front of the whole class?"

Kyo glared. "Don't you dare," he muttered under his breath, heading quickly to the front of the classroom. He really did not want the class to know that once again, he had done badly. He was so sick of this. Sick of humiliating himself in front of the class, sick of being bested once again by the champion of the Sohmas, Mr Rat-Face himself!

He grabbed at the pink slip before Mayuko-sensei could snatch it away again, and quickly stole a look at it before his courage failed him altogether. His jaw dropped.

Quickly, he checked to see that his name was on the top of the paper. When it was, he stared at it, hardly daring to breathe. Maybe it belonged to someone else, maybe there must have been some sort of computer glitch and it had printed his name on someone else's paper. It couldn't be his! Kyo Sohma never got As!

And yet, there it was, the one big A staring back at him. Of course, there was the customary Bs and Cs and one D which doubtless was for his stupid maths, but the A! He looked up to see Mayuko-sensei smiling at him but to his surprise, it did not seem to contain any hint of mockery.

"Well, Kyo," she remarked. "I didn't think you were the kind to do well in English, of all subjects. In fact, you scored the highest in the entire class. You've done a good job."

Kyo stumbled back to his seat, his mind a complete blank. He just . . . couldn't believe it. Behind him, amongst other such whispers and giggles and smirks, Uotani whispered to her friend, Saki Hanajima, "Carrot-top is turning sissy, if you ask me. English, of all subjects!"

Hanajima turned to him and smiled one of her queer smiles. "So he's not totally brainless after all, like we all thought."

Uotani sneaked a look at him. "Wow, there must be something wrong with him. He never even reacted to our little conversation!"

To tell the truth, Kyo had not even heard their little exchange. He had scored the highest in class for English . . . which meant that he had actually beaten Yuki at something. He smirked as he stared at his results. He had beaten Yuki at something, finally! Finally, he knew that he actually stood a chance, that even though Yuki was supposed to be great at everything, he, the cat, the outcast, the looser of the family, the biggest shame on the face of the earth, the stupid idiot who couldn't do anything, had beaten the one who was supposed to be greatness on the face of the earth. It was unbelievable, it was mind-boggling!

Kyo never even processed what went on during the rest of the lesson. He never heard that once again, Yuki was the top of the class, with Nora Koizumi, the class president, coming in as a close second. He never heard that Isamu Takachi, the one boy who always liked to talk to Kyo and even eat with him from time to time, had once again just barely scrapped through, being scolded by Mayuko-sensei for not putting in his best effort. All he could do was stare at his results slip as if it was the only thing in existence.

At that moment, the bell rang. Kyo literally jumped out of his seat, once again inviting smirks from both Uotani and Hanajima. He was just about to turn and glare at them when he heard Mayuko-sensei speak. "I expect all of you to return with your report cards tomorrow, _signed_. If you don't, I'll _personally_ go to your house to collect them. Kinoshita Minami and Sohma Kyo, I would like to see you outside the class, immediately." And with that, she swept out of the classroom.

Automatically, Kyo stood up and began gathering his things. Just when he was about to leave the classroom, _she_ stepped in front of him, and gave him one of her huge beams of joy. "Congratulations, Kyo!" she gasped. "I'm so happy for you, you should be so proud of yourself! So would Master Kazuma . . . Shigure-san . . . even . . ."

He frowned at her. "Don't you dare tell them! Or else . . ."

She only beamed up at him. "But they would want to know . . ."

He only glared and muttered under his breath, "You knowing is good enough for me."

With that, he turned and walked in the direction of the door to speak to both Mayuko-sensei and Kinoshita, leaving her staring at him, her face as red as a tomato.


	3. Chapter 3

**For some reason, there's something wrong with my internet server. I just cannot seem to upload documents. Luckily, I had a back-up document and I replaced all the wordings with this text. Thank heavens, otherwise this story would have taken a longer time to update! It's a new lesson I learnt, next time, have a back up document that you can edit just in case something like this happens.**

**Well, chapter 3 is done up, and edited nicely. Thanks to all of you guys who reviewed my story, it really made my day reading your reviews!**

**To julie5, thanks for your review! I couldn't reply to you because your review was anonymous, so I have to do it here. Don't worry, I'll review your story as soon as possible, promise! Oh, and thanks for that mistake you pointed out in your review! To clarify, yes, Kyo has been locked up for 2 years already, but I wasn't actually meaning to disclose it. Then, when I read what I had writen before, after you reviewed, I realised that I had given the game away. Thanks so much for that! I do feel grateful whenever anyone points out my mistakes, so I can learn from then and not commit the same mistake again.**

**Well, here's chapter 3! Please read and review, okay? Constructive criticisms very much welcome! Thanks in advance, and hope you enjoy my latest offering! Til next time, see yah!**

**Hopefully the glitch would be repaired and I would then be able to upload my next chapter.**

Chapter 3

The cat noticed that the sun was starting to dip. It would be evening soon. Sure enough, after watching the window for what seemed like a few minutes, the sky started to darken. It would be a cold night, he could tell by the breeze that blew in from time to time, and once again, he reached for his tattered blanket and wrapped it around him. He curled up on the floor and closed his eyes, only to have them spring open as once again, the pains smote him. It was so frequent really, since it was no surprise that he had not eaten for the whole of that day. Or had it been the day before? All he knew was that he had not eaten for what seemed like a long time.

His stomach rumbled from time to time and he wondered whether he would be fed today. He knew that normally, it would be the evenings in which the guards came in, and during that time, they would bring food and he would finally be allowed to eat, after having undergone days without even a single scrap to eat. For the rest of the day, he would be left alone. At least, the guards would leave him alone. There were still some outside people who made their way past his cage, some even peering in, but he always tried to ignore them.

Worse of all, they never seemed to come regularly. He had never been fed for two consecutive days ever since he had been brought into this place. Sometimes, he would even go without eating for at the most three days. It was those times that were the hardest. If he had not eaten for two days, his hunger pains seemed to consume his every conscious thought on the third. No matter how hard he tried to divert his mind to think of something, anything to forget about the hunger, he found that due to the hunger, he really could not think of anything else. Half the time, he actually wished that they would never come in again, that they would leave him here until he finally faded away. At least, after the fade-out, he would never have to feel anything ever again.

However, they just had to keep him to the point of starvation for who knew what reason. Maybe the outside people paid them to do it, they dropped in from time to stare at him, and it probably gave them enjoyment to watch him in such a state.

All he knew was this, that he was perpetually hungry and that he could barely think of anything else. It was as if a starving wolf was gnawing at his insides.

Even when the guards fed him, the results were barely negligible. The food they provided for him was always cold, and never fresh. The meat tasted at least a day old, and the vegetables were limp and mouldy. And even then, they came in a tiny bowl, so tiny that it would actually fit into his cupped hands. The bowl would be filled to the brim with food, consisting of a crumb of bread, a strip of meat, and a limp stalk of vegetable, mixed with some cold, hard, lumpy rice that would actually hurt when swallowed. The diet never varied.

They also provided another bowl of water, as small as the bowl of food. It, like the food, never seemed to be enough. The little amount of food and water he was given was hardly enough to actually lessen the thirst and hunger pains, much less, fill his stomach. Worse of all, they were so infrequent in coming that even though he never actually got hungrier, he never really knew so . . . he was too busy actually thinking of something, anything to get his mind off the state of his stomach.

Once upon a time, when he actually allowed outside, eating had been an enjoyment, especially when _she_ was around. She had been a wonderful cook; he had always enjoyed her food. She somehow seemed to have the ability to turn chunks of raw, inedible, horrible tasting objects smelling of blood and soil into something else altogether, a feast of the senses.

He remembered coming back everyday, tired from his sessions with his sensei, and he would sit at the table, and practically inhale everything, sometimes even asking for seconds.

It had been worth it to eat her food, and it made him even warmer inside whenever he chanced to look up, and see her literally beaming at him, so glad that he was actually enjoying her food. Of course, Shigure would be there, begging "his little flower", to maybe go out with him sometime, so he would forever be tasting her delicious food, and Rat-face would be there as well, effectively spoiling the meal by his presence, much less, the sound of his voice, telling Shigure to shut up and eat, or telling him to stop gobbling his food up like the stupid, greedy cat he always was.

More often than not, the meal would be spoilt because by that time, he would have reached boiling rage by Rat-face's remarks that before he even knew it, he would be on his feet challenging Rat-face to a duel, only to find himself landing on the grass outside, facing a torn paper screen, hearing her distressed cries and Shigure's, "You break it, you pay for it," sayings, or somewhere along those lines.

And now . . . it seemed like it was so long ago when it happened. Now, he could still remember their mealtimes, and that smiling expression on her face, but when he tried to recall what exactly the food did taste like, no matter how hard he tried, he found himself unable to do so. He could not even remember what her rice balls had tasted like, even though he knew that he had eaten them far oftener than the rest of her food – in fact, they had been his favourites, other than fish.

He was supposed to be a cat, and yet, he could not even remember what fish tasted like? It really must have been a long time since he really ate it, properly cooked and seasoned, unlike the cold, leathery chunks he was given now, so tiny that he could hardly taste it.

Idly, he pushed himself upright and rested against the wall, shifting his position as from time to time. He would wince whenever he pressed his back against the wall. Once again, he bit his bottom lip as a certain hotness started to build up under his eyelids. He was so tired of this . . . he curled up once again on the ground, only to push himself back upright. Finally, he pushed himself forward so that he was not leaning against the wall, and rested his chin on his knees; his hands pressed against him.

It was the lot of the cat, really. He was the cat, he did not deserve special treatment, and his lot in life was to be kept away, locked in a place where he would not be of any harm to anybody. A long time ago, cats were locked up when it was realised that they could no longer control their true forms. However, the family members had realised that by that time, it may be too late to save themselves from the cat, so from henceforth, cats were locked up before this could happen. The age had decreased and decreased, and finally, it cumulated in him going to the cage at eighteen years of age.

He had no choice. Sooner or later, he would loose control of the true form, and he would be a danger to all the people around him, inclusive of _her_. Better that he be locked up now than when he lost control of his true form. By that time, it would be too late.

It seemed that he had always lived like this. Yet, he knew otherwise, due to the snatches of memory that still hovered in his consciousness. Somehow, his memories did not seem to make sense, sure he may have lived through them, but yet, he could not feel them. He knew that when he was out, he had slept on a bed, but he could not remember what it felt like to actually lie on it. He remembered that when he was outside, he had eaten, and enjoyed it. Yet, he could not remember what it felt like to actually feel like he had eaten; neither could he remember what his favourite foods tasted like.

Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe he was finally going mad. He remembered Akito telling him once that when cats were finally locked up, they lasted for at least half a year before they went completely insane. Stories about how cat shrieks were heard, full of anger, hurt, and loneliness until finally, people around just could no longer stand it and the cat ended up being gagged until he or she promised to behave.

Maybe he had gone mad already. He had tried to escape once, telling himself that it would work but only to find that it backfired on him.

It must be his mind playing tricks on him. Really, he could think of no other reason.

At that moment, he heard a sound. The ominous sound of a key in a lock. As quickly as lightning, he huddled into the nearest corner, trembling as he watched the doors slide open, and a woman and two men striding in, the woman holding a tiny clay bowl, and the two men carrying two long, wooden sticks. He lowered his head so that his bangs covered his eyes, and waited,


	4. Chapter 4

Hi guys! Yep, my latest chapter! I realised that it was something wrong with my computer, that was why I wasn't able to load any documents in my last chapter. Now that I have my own laptop, I can finally update properly! Yay! Well, thanks for all your previous reviews, they really made my day! I'm so glad that people actually like what I have and are willing to read them! Hopefully, you guys would like this chapter as well! Please review, okay? Constructive criticisms very much welcome! Till my latest chapter comes up, see yah! 

Chapter 4 (3)

Isamu Takachi raised an eyebrow as he watched Kyo stalk back to his seat and begin packing his stuff. By that time, practically all the students had already disappeared, but Isamu decided to stay back and wait for Kyo. He, despite himself, and Kyo's obvious attitude, was quite curious as to why Mayuko-Sensei wanted to see Kyo, and with Minami Kinoshita to boot.

Obviously, something was a bit off. He watched as Kyo's stationary went into his report card envelope, his report card went into his wallet, and his wallet went into one of his mangas, and his mangas into . . . Isamu walked across and pulled the manga out of Kyo's hands. "I was wondering where you were going to put this," he joked.

Kyo blinked up at him, realised where exactly he had put his stuff, and glared. "I . . . I was just . . . thinking about something." Great, now Isamu had seen him doing something stupid. Hopefully, Isamu wouldn't spread it around the class; otherwise he would never live this down. He shuddered to think of what Uotani would say, then caught himself and began packing his things all over again. Within seconds, he was done, and both of them walked out of the classroom.

Both boys were silent as they walked, both staring straight ahead of them, before finally, Isamu couldn't resist his curiosity. Obviously, something must have happened to get the normally unflappable Kyo into such a state. He turned to Kyo and asked, "So what did Mayuko-Sensei want to see you and Kinoshita about?"

Kyo shrugged. He gazed around the school before finally turning to Isamu, who had by that time thought Kyo was not even going to bother to answer him. "She thought both Kinoshita and I did well enough to cope with doing English Literature and she asked us to consider taking that class."

Isamu smirked. "Funny, you don't strike me as the English Literature type." Kyo's temper was well known throughout the school, students normally jumped out of the way whenever he walked past, in fact, like what they were doing now. Isamu could not help feeling sorry for Kyo.

Kyo shrugged again. "I never saw myself as that type of person either," he replied as he pushed the door open to their next class. He glanced at the teacher. "Great, I love maths," he muttered sarcastically as he stalked to his seat and flung himself down. Isamu braced himself, but luckily, the teacher never heard what Kyo had to say about his maths lessons.

Isamu sighed. Even though they had been friends . . . or was it acquaintances? For the past few weeks, Kyo still remained the enigma. He never knew what he was thinking. Neither did he share what was on his mind. In fact, when they were together, both of them barely said anything to each other, other than comment on the weather or complain about teachers or talk about lessons and sports, idle chit-chat. What he did know was only the tip of the iceberg, and below the water level, all was murky.

As for Kyo, he found that he could not concentrate. English literature . . . of all subjects. Kyo knew that English was in huge demand these days since everybody seemed to speak it or lecture about it's importance, but yet, he never placed any importance on it. He would not need English, he would not need to use it once he was locked up; nobody would speak to him even in Japanese, much less English.

And yet . . . he knew that if he did not take this chance, he would never have the chance to do so ever again. It was something he may actually be good at, something he could even beat rat-face at. He had no idea how badly rat-face did; he had never bothered to ask as most likely, he would probably get punched in the face, as if he could tolerate being near him anyway. Anyway, rat-face probably did slightly worse than him, since he was so good at everything.

Not only that, this chance had been offered to him of all people. Not rat-face. Only him, and Kinoshita, of course. Surely this meant that there was something he was good at not even rat-face could do. This had never happened before. Rat-face was first at everything. He had started martial arts later than him, and yet, he could defeat Kyo in one second, or three if he was really bored, even though they were both black belts. He was the smartest; he scored the highest in every subject. People looked to him for leadership, while at the same time jumping out of Kyo's way every time he walked past them.

And yet, it was he who had been offered the chance to do this subject, not rat-face.

At that moment, the bell rang. Kyo was startled once again, but when he glanced around, he was glad that nobody had noticed. Nobody had even looked his way. Gosh, what was wrong with him today! He was unusually jumpy these days.

That day, _she_ did not have to report for work. One minute he was on his own, walking out of the school gates, the next, there she was, at his side, beaming that usual beam of hers. Despite himself, he felt the corners of his mouth turn up slightly, and was both gratified and embarrassed at the same time to see her beam widen even more.

"It's so nice to see Kyo-kun smile," she remarked cheerfully.

Kyo turned red. "Yeah . . . well . . . don't come to expect it though."

She just giggled. Then, "Have you decided to take Literature yet?"

He shrugged. "Kind of, I guess. Thinking of it. I'll have to tell Shigure when I get home though, see what the head," he barely managed to repress a shudder at that. "Has to say about it."

She smiled. "Shigure would be so proud! Have you told Master Kazuma yet?"

He couldn't help laughing at that. "Seesh, the entire world does not need to know about it!"

"But he'll be so proud as well!" She protested.

He just shrugged. "Nah, let's just wait and see what the head has to say about it first, okay? No use getting other people's hopes up." And his own, but she did not need to know that.

"Okay," she replied, wistfully. Both of them were silent as they walked home. Kyo glanced over at her and wondered what she was thinking about. Probably about the English Literature thing. She turned to gaze up at him again. "Would Kyo-kun . . . still walk home with me?"

Kyo understood exactly what she was after. The problem with the English Literature students was that they considered themselves the Elite. English was considered a 'high class language'; those who were able to speak it, and apply it well were the 'Elite'. Once could always tell who were the English Literature students, they always had their noses high in the air, talking in that irritating 'English' accent of theirs. The whole falseness made of it all made Kyo want to laugh in their faces.

Speaking English on its own was no big deal; everybody in the school took English as a second language. Only the English Literature students, knowing that they were good enough, the best out of their cohort, chosen to take this subject, it must mean that they were the 'Elite', the chosen few good enough to compete in the real world, whether in or outside Japan.

Kyo doubted that he would get the chance to think of himself as Elite anyway. He was the cat, and that automatically put him among the lowest of the low among his family hierarchy. "I'll still walk home with you, of course." He turned red, thinking that he had better shut up now. "At least you're a better alternative to them."

She beamed up at him. "That's great!" Then, looking around, realised where they were, for the first time. Somehow, the journey seemed too short for both of them. "We're home," he heard her call cheerfully as she opened the door. He headed to the kitchen to get a mouthful of milk, and to his surprise, he saw no sign of Shigure. Normally, Shigure would be in the kitchen by the time they came home, reading a newspaper, or some retarded magazine. It seemed as if the guy did not do any work at all. He seemed to divide his time between teasing his fellow family members, reading the newspaper or sleeping.

However, he had no idea what Shigure did in the night anyway, so he really couldn't say whether Shigure actually did any work. For all he knew, that could have been how Shigure got his glasses.

With such habits, how Shigure got to be a best selling novelist was beyond him.

Kyo put the milk carton back into the fridge and trudged to his room. He walked up the stairs, but stopped when he heard voices. So that's where Shigure was! He was standing at the landing talking on the phone! To his surprise, Shigure looked uncharacteristically serious. Normally, Shigure would have this stupid grin on his face as he teased his cousins and houseguest, but this time round, this grin seemed to have disappeared.

At that moment, Shigure put down the phone. He looked up, giving a start when he saw Kyo standing there. "Ah, yes, Kyo," he sounded a bit flustered. "I was just talking to the main house, and I'm afraid that I have bad news for you."

"What?" Kyo demanded, taking a step back. When it came to matters of the main house, no news was good news.

Shigure sighed and looked despondent. "They want you to move back. You're to pack your things and report there before the week finishes."

Kyo's jaw dropped, and be could barely even think of what to say. Finally, he said the first thing that came to his mind. "Well, at least you won't have to worry about your house being wrecked."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi! Yep, my latest chapter is out. So sorry I ended up taking such a long time with it, because I had a series of mental blocks and it got a bit depressing every time I couldn't think of an idea. However, I now have the time to read, and I realise that it has helped me develop more writing skills, and I can now continue. Hence, this chapter. Hope you guys like it!**

**Once again, thanks for all the reviews you guys posted! It really made my day reading them, and knowing that my stories are being read and liked! Thanks so much for the encouragement!**

**Oh well, on with the show! Hope you guys like it! Please read and review, okay? Thanks so much!**

Chapter 5

For some reason, the sight of the sticks seemed to render the Cat trembling, as much as he tried to hide it. He hated appearing weak in front of other people, especially them, but there was no other alternative. He bit his lip as he bowed his head, trying to appear contrite so that at least, they might get bored and leave him alone.

There was no other way to defend himself. His wrists and ankles were tied together with leather thongs. He could barely move, even a slight movement would cause pain to shoot from his wrists and ankles, long periods of inactivity causing his body to ache all over the place.

He had to choose between saving his skin, and saving his pride. A long time ago, when he was first confined, he had fought against his treatment with every once of strength he had. Now, he only cared to be as quiet as possible, so his captors would not notice him so much. Pride meant nothing anymore. It used to mean holding one's head up high, status, appearance, but now, stripped down to the bare bones, it was nothing. Pride did not salvage food, neither did it prevent beatings.

He bit his lip as he tucked his legs beneath him and laid his wrists on his lap, lowering his face so that his bangs covered his features. He made himself as small and bowed as possible. The less they saw of him, the better.

He trembled as they approached. When they were near enough, he clasped his wrists to his chest and bowed low. Then, he pushed himself upright and waited.

Suddenly, without warning, the guard suddenly lunged forward, and gave him a violent backhand across the face. His head swung to the side due to the force of the blow and he could barely keep from crying out.

"You monster," the man hissed. "How many times have we told you that you're only to raise your head after we tell you to? Or are you too stupid to understand us? I'm not surprised, monsters are reputed to be stupid."

The cat barely resisted the urge to shrug. He could not remember when exactly had he been told that, and he could be counted on to remember things that other people had forgotten. However, it meant nothing. He was completely helpless here; the last thing they would do would be to listen to him.

The guard backhanded him again. "What? Nothing to say? Cat got your tongue?"

The next thing he knew, the man's stick caught him across the shoulders and he was flung against the wall. He hit the wall hard, letting out a strangled gasp before landing awkwardly the floor, limbs sprawled. He curled up into a small ball. Dimly, he heard the guards laughing. "Looks like the monster hasn't learnt it's lesson yet. It needs to be punished."

The cat bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut so that he would not have to see what they were about to do to him. He knew why they had brought those sticks, why they did so every time they came to 'visit' him. He gasped from time to time whenever a blow struck. Dimly, he wondered how long he would have to live like this. He knew, without a doubt, that he would be in the cage for the rest of his life, but the rest of his life seemed so far away. He was only . . . exactly how old was he in the first place? He had no idea. It all seemed so far away . . .Yet, he refused to cry out. Instead, he bit his lips as the blows continued to rain down on him. It was a good thing that they had brought sticks instead of whips, whips were far more painful, and they drew blood immediately on contact. Even he, already so used to the whips, could not resist crying out from the pain they caused him.

And yet, the blows continued. Grimly, he gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. His fingers curled into tight fists. With each strike, his teeth grinded painfully together, until he was sure than he would end up loosing his teeth, and bit his lip instead. Yet, with each strike, his teeth sank deeper and deeper into his lip, until he tasted blood. Yet, grimly, he continued to bite at his torn lips, refusing to make a sound, refusing to let the guards see that they were causing him pain. Soon, he hoped, they would get bored and leave.

Finally, they stopped. He could not resist a sigh of relief, yet instinctively, he curled up tighter. Worse of all, he felt blood seep into his yukata, and he knew that they had drawn blood, whether from newly made wounds or somewhat healed ones, once again opened up by the beatings. He could not tell, every single part of his body ached, and he could not resist a groan. It was instinctive; he had not even known that he had done it.

"How pathetic," one of the guards muttered. He had not idea who had said it, his face being hidden under his arms. He had no more energy to even bristle with rage. In fact, he quite agreed with him. Once upon a time, he remembered that he would have fought with all his resources over a slight insult, but now, he would not even move at a major one. It was true, he really was pathetic.

The woman tapped her foot on the ground. "Hurry up," she snapped. "Let's feed this thing, I've got far more important things to do than stand here."

The guards shrugged. "Yes, ma'am," they said, and then stood aside.

The woman stepped forward and placed the bowl on the floor, her face twisted into a scowl. She refused to look at the creature on the floor, instead, focusing on the bowl as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. She straightened and snapped, "Hurry up and eat, then we can leave."

How, he wanted to scream. He could barely even move. Then, when a guard stepped forward and lifted his stick, he forced himself upright, winching from time to time. Slowly, he made his way to the bowl, knelt in front of it, brought his face down, and began eating. As he ate, he never looked up at the faces of the people in front of him. Yet, he knew exactly what they would be like, identical smirks mingled with looks of disgust, and he knew that he would not be able to endure those looks in silence. Better not to look at them at all.

A long time ago, he would have balked at eating like this, but now . . . he was the cat. He had stopped caring about it ever since he stopped feeling outraged at this treatment. It was a good way to survive, to not think. He would not have to care about the stupid emotions that made him feel like a living thing. Numb, emotionless, that was the way to survive in a place like this.

He practically gobbled up his food, as fast and silently as he could. He knew from experience that these people did not like to be kept waiting. He had the scars to show from the numerous times in the past that he had stopped to glance up at them. Though he had no idea how they would react, since he had stopped making sounds years ago and he never dared to find out.

He did not want to find out now anyway, he was too sore, and he did not think he could endure another round of beatings without remaining silent.

Finally, he was done. He lifted himself into a kneeling position and waited, head down. "Finally," the woman snapped. Gingerly, she picked up the bowl with a towel, with that same disgusted look on her face even more evident than previous times, she whirled and stalked off without even looking back.

The first guard also followed her out, but the second could not help smirking at that kneeling figure. He reached down, grabbed those greasy orange strands, lifted him slightly with it, and flung him against the wall, before stalking off. He never heard the whimper issued from the curled figure, or if he did, he pretended not to hear.

A few seconds later, the cat heard the screen door slam shut, a clicking sound almost deafening in the silence, and finally, the fading of footsteps.

He curled up right where he lay and closed his eyes. Even though he felt much safer in his corner, hidden by shadow, he did not have the energy to move towards it. He hurt too much, yet his eyes remained dry. He did not even have energy to shed tears, knowing that it would be completely useless in his situation, like everything else he was ever good at.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks so much for your previous reviews, it really made my day knowing that people are reading my stories! Thanks so much!**

**To The Only Onigiri: Thanks for your review! I had to put my message here because I couldn't message you through I'll promise I'll be safe, don't worry, and well enough to post chapters!**

**To: Alex: Aw, thanks so much! I'm so honoured and glad you liked my work! I couldn't message you through either, so I put it here. Hope you guys don't mind!**

**Alright, on with the next chapter! In this chapter, Kyo moves back to the Sohma compound. Hope you guys like it, and please review, okay? Authors love receiving reviews . . . oh well, enough of my chat, and hope you enjoy this chapter! Until the next chapter, see yah!**

Chapter 6

"'We're here," Hatori announced as he parked the car in the lot allocated to him in the Sohma compound. Kyo did not respond immediately. Instead, he snapped off the seatbelt and opened the door to get out. He glanced back and saw that Hatori was staring at him, and he made an irritated growl. He hated it when people stared at him like that; it made him feel helpless, and someone who should be shown pity. Kyo, like what he felt for all car trips, hated it, since he had to be strapped into his seat by a seatbelt, constricting his movements. Hatori sighed and got out of the car as well.

In spite of himself, even though he knew his cousin hated it, Hatori could not help pitying Kyo. All through the car ride, Kyo had remained silent; staring out of the window as if those buildings he normally passed everyday were the most interesting things in the world. It was as if Kyo was heading straight to the cage and steeling himself for it, instead of the house reserved for his use. He had even pointed it out in a calm, indifferent voice to Kyo, whose only reaction was to look at Hatori, then turn back to the window.

The car ride had been awkward, to say the least. Both Shigure and _she_ had helped Kyo pack his precious belongings. Rat face, of course, had disappeared, probably at his stupid "secret base" that practically everybody knew about. It was a relief; he could not stand being around that particular human being anyway. The whole weekend seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. On Friday, Kyo had received the news. On Sunday, Hatori came to fetch Kyo to the main house.

She had been upset, of course. She had even begged Shigure to try to convince the main house to let Kyo stay with Shigure, but to no avail. Shigure could only tell her that anything that came from the main house was an order, and could not be bargained with. He had even told her that no amount of bargaining from either her or him would change the mind of the family head, and if she wanted to ensure Kyo's safety, she better not go directly to the main house otherwise Kyo would definitely be punished. Knowing Shigure, Kyo had no idea whether it was the truth or not, but he decided he had better not tell her, for all he knew, maybe Shigure was right, and anyway, he did not want to get her into trouble. Hence, he spent the weekend quietly packing, with her help of course.

He definitely would miss living here. He would miss seeing her, tasting her delicious cooking, talking to her on the roof, where both of them would watch the stars and talk about mundane stuff, the normal stuff people chit-chatted about. Most of all, he would miss the warmth she provided, both inside and out. He sighed, knowing full well that seeing her in school would not be enough, and he would have to get used to it. There was nothing he could do anyway.

A few of the servants approached them, with sullen looks on their faces. He noted than whenever they set eyes on him, their sullenness would change to a look of disgust. They would stare straight at him until he could not help looking at them, before turning away. No surprise, after all, he was the cat. They had never treated him any differently from that, so he should be used to it by now, but for some reason, he still felt his heart clench and his face flush from shame.

Kyo watched as Hatori told them to pick up Kyo's luggage and take them to the room prepared for him. Once again, hearing the word 'room' sent shivers down his spine, and involuntarily, he wrapped his arms around himself and shuddered. Why did he have to return here in the first place? He hated returning to the Sohma compound and having to live with the disgusted looks and snide remarks whenever he communicated with any of his family members. Why couldn't they let him stay at Shigure's house, where he knew that _she_ was there, and she never treated him the way he was treated here. In fact, she actually would seek out his company. Even Hatori's emotionless gaze would be much better company than the distain he faced here.

At that moment, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he looked up, right into Hatori's face. As usual, Hatori looked rather expressionless; instead, he only indicated that Kyo was to follow him before moving forward. Kyo forced his own feet to move, pushing himself forward step by step into the Sohma compound. Hatori shook his head and sighed. Once again, he wondered what on earth was wrong with Kyo. Kyo had not been like this, he had always remembered Kyo as a somewhat feisty youngster, quick to fight against insult or injury. Right now, the old Kyo would be storming next to Hatori, demanding that Hatori tell him the reason why he was being forced to move to the Sohma compound, and cursing if Hatori refused to tell him. He probably would have insisted on staying behind at Shigure's house, and being forced into the car. Instead, Kyo was just listlessly following him, his eyes on his own feet.

The weather was not helping much, either. It was dark, even though it was only early afternoon. The sky was overcast, a dark grey in color. Not only that, the wind was whipping branches against each other, whipping hair over eyes, causing a large, whirling sound, almost deafening to the ears. It was going to rain, perhaps, that was what was holding Kyo down. Kyo always acted down every time it was about to rain. It had something to do with the curse of the cat, the true form. At the memory of the true form, Hatori realized that it was not the weather. Kyo acted this way even on the finest of days. It definitely had to be something else that was bothering him and perhaps, he knew the reason why, and it was not just that he did not want to be here.

Kyo shivered and wrapped his jacket tighter against him. He gave a growl of frustration as the wind once again whipped his hair into his eyes, stinging it. It was then that he heard the murmuring of voices. He glanced up, and saw that they were walking on a path, surrounded on each side by trees and houses. They were still in the outer compound, he knew by the appearance of the houses, since the houses in the inner compound were beige in color, whereas these were white. Of course, both still had the red sliding doors and red roofs, and landings. Many of them had potted plants, some with chairs, tables, and mats, made of either highly polished wood or polished marble. Some doors even had gold trimmings.

As he walked, he could hear murmurings around him, coming from behind the closed doors of the houses. He could see shadows behind the doors, of different shapes and sizes, dark and opaque. Despite himself, he strained to hear the murmurings and was not surprised to hear words such as "monster", and "it". They were probably wondering why he was here, why he had to threaten the atmosphere of the Sohma compound, taint it with his presence. He did not want to be here either, to listen to all these hateful murmurings. All he wanted to do was to go back to Shigure's place, into his own room, where he could be alone, and where he knew he would be welcomed, even if it was only by one person. Well . . . maybe two, since Shigure did enjoy teasing his houseguests from time to time, and him being there would make it more fun.

Suddenly, he noticed that he was no longer walking on pathway, but on grass. He glanced up, and saw that they were in a clearing. The clearing was surrounded by walls on two sides; he could even see the brief outlines of other buildings in the distance, those belonging to the inner compound, as seen by the beige walls. They even had gold trimmings on the windows, and probably on the doors as well, though it was too far to see from here.

He saw that right in the middle of the clearing was a hut. This hut was built like the others, with the normal landing, sliding doors, and a window on each side, with a maroon roof. However, the walls were painted white with a grayish tint, and even the maroon roof had a hint of grey about it. There were no gold trimmings on the sliding doors, nor were there any furnishing on the landing, unlike the other houses. This house was simply made, without the added frills of wealth.

He noticed that it was to this house that they were headed. In spite of himself, he stopped and bit his lip. He was unsure of whether to go on, to actually go inside the house. What if, once he was inside, they locked the door? He would be trapped there, unable to go out unless they allowed him to. Won't this be like being locked in the cage, then? What was the difference? He took a step back and glanced around him, nobody else was around. They had probably all gone into the house. Nobody would notice if he ran away. Yet, the people around the compound would notice. They would see him streaking by, and know that he was not supposed to do this. They would definitely catch him, since there were so many of them, and he would definitely be brought to Akito. The thought of it was enough to make him shiver.

At that moment, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up, and saw Hatori staring down at him, this time, with concern in his eyes. This was surprising; Hatori never really showed emotion if he could get away with it. None of them moved for a while, it was as if they were frozen in time. Finally, Hatori spoke. "Kyo, this isn't the cage."

Kyo shrugged. "You could just lock me inside there whenever you wanted to. There's no difference." Almost angrily, he jerked himself out of Hatori's grasp and stalked towards the house.

Kyo was pleasantly surprised when he jerked the sliding doors open and stalked in. It was dark, but he was able to locate the light switch and flick it on. The room flooded with light from the lamp in the ceiling. To his surprise, the place was quite clean. There was hardly any dust, and the walls were pure white in color. He could even smell the scent of newly used paint from the walls. The floor was made of polished wooden tiles, dark brown in color. He found himself in a room, as big as his own back in Shigure's house. The wall on his right and at the other end had a sliding door, made of dark polished wood, with transparent glass panels, the smell of polish very strong on them. In the middle of the room, there was a table, surrounded by a plain maroon carpet. There were also four bookshelves, placed in the different corners of the room. They were made of light brown wood.

He peered into the door at the far end of the room, and saw that there was a futon with white sheets on the floor, a bookshelf, and a wardrobe, all made of light, polished wood. All his bags were laid there, in an untidy heap in the corner. He made a face; he would have to sort it out later.

He noticed that the last sliding door did not have any glass windows in it. He slid it open and realized why – it was hiding the bathroom. It had the usual sink, bathtub, and toilet bowl. It was quite clean as well, and smelt of cleaning fluid.

He retired to the bedroom and sat on the futon, head resting on his knees. All in all, it was not really that bad. At least they had bothered to make the place livable for him. It would be quite possible to survive, as long as he kept out of the way of his family members. As long as he stayed in this place, he knew that he would be safe, that no other family member would come here as long as they really had to, knowing full well that the cat stayed in this place. Perhaps, they would even forget about his existence, until the time he had to be taken to the cage. Then, of course, they would be out in full force, like waves crashing against cliffs.

As long as he did not have to interact with any family members, he would be perfectly fine.

4


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi guys! Latest chapter up, hope you like this! Oh, and those who reviewed, once again, thanks so much! It really means a lot to me to receive reviews like this! I really love writing, to be honest, and it feels as if I've been pouring my heart and soul into this story, so I really hope you guys like my latest chapter.**

**For those of you who have me on your author's alert list or your favorites list and haven't reviewed yet (heh heh, I know who you are!), please leave one for me! I really would like to know what you feel about my story and whether it can be improved or not. I except constructive criticism, especially since I'll know which areas I need to improve. So please review, all right? I'll be looking forward to receiving them, and thanks in advance!**

**All right, enough chitchat, from me at least! Presenting . . . Chapter 7 of "Past and Present"!**

Chapter 7

The door slid open, revealing a tall, thin figure. The cat squinted and held his hands over his face. He was so used to the darkness, and having light shining directly into his face made it very uncomfortable, it was far too bright to tolerate. It was not the normal time for them to come in. It would be much darker, almost night in fact. This was not them. It must be Hatori then, Hatori came and went at his own free will. He was surprised that he could remember Hatori's name, the last time he used it seemed so long ago.

Sure enough, as the person came into view, the cat saw that it was indeed Hatori. The white shirt, jacket and dress pants were very recognizable, due to their westernized influence. It was a comfort to know that some people did not really change that much, Hatori was still pretty much the same person he knew when he was out of the cage. At least, even though he missed so much more, it comforted him to know that he did not miss this.

Nevertheless, he pushed himself into a kneeling position and bowed. This time, he remained in that bowed position, eyes gazing down at the rough, dusty wooden tiles. He still remembered the last time the guards had come in, and exactly what they had said and did to him. He winced and bit his lip again; it hurt kneeling in that position, pushing against numerous sore spots. For some reason, it was his shins that they loved to go for; he was surprised that they had not broken anything yet.

He had no idea how long the interval between Hatori's visits were, but at least, he did know that this was not the first time that Hatori visited him, though he was not sure whether it would be the last. Ever since he was taken in to the cage, Hatori was a regular visitor. He always bought with him this black bag, and when opened, turned out to be full of bandages and medicine bottles. He knew how to read; he had not forgotten how to even though he had not read a single word in what seemed like forever.

The cat dimly wondered why anyone would send Hatori to him. He was the cat after all, he was not entitled to the normal check-ups that the other family members had to go for every six months, unless they were ill and needed treatment immediately. Yet, Hatori still came. In fact, he even came armed with a whole arsenal of medicines in case he needed it. Hatori would always ask him how he was feeling, and he still continued to ask the same question even though he was in the cage.

He heard Hatori give a sigh and he could not help trembling, maybe he had done something wrong and was now about to be punished for it. There was an awkward pause, and then Hatori finally said, "Kyo, you don't have to kneel to me."

The cat immediately obeyed his instructions, drawing himself upward and pushing himself into his normal position, hands curled against chest, head resting on knees. He had not meant to make any sound; yet, he could not help the involuntary sigh of relief at the release of pain from the scabs and bruises on his legs. Why did Hatori insist on calling him "Kyo"? That was what people called him when he was outside the cage, when he was free to move about, not confined by four walls and a locked door, with only occasional breezes drifting through a barred window.

Hatori immediately noticed the cat's sigh. He gripped the cat's yukata and lifted it up, exposing his ankles and shins. He immediately tried to pull away, but it was too late, Hatori had seen the scraps and bruises, and his eyes widened. They must have been pretty bad then. The cat turned away from Hatori's face and concentrated on his bound wrists instead. His face burned red with shame. Despite himself, he began to tremble. He wanted to fade away, into the dark corners of the room where nobody could see him, where he could be safe from the prying eyes of people in general. Why couldn't they just leave him to die? Why did they even have to come here, to mock, beat, or stare at him? He squeezed his eyes shut and huddled down, to make himself as small as possible. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain at his ankles. It made him shriek and jerk back against the wall.

"I'll be as quick as possible," Hatori stated. "I just need to untie your ankles so that I can bandage them." The cat did not respond at first. He only continued to tremble, whimpering as softly as he could from time to time. Hatori held up both hands. "It is not my intention to hurt you, I just want to check your cuts and make sure that they are not infected." He reached out a hand and touched the cat's hunched shoulder, only to recoil back when he hissed.

However, it did have the desired effect, because when he reached for the cat's yukata again, this time, he did not recoil back. Instead, he bit his lip and hissed every time he felt the pain flare up from his ankle. If it had shocked Hatori, who should be used to this by now, being a doctor, obviously, it must have been quite bad. In fact, he never did dare to check himself after every beating, he did not think he could take the sight of it, it hurt badly enough anyway, that must mean it must be bad.

Suddenly, he felt the pressure against his ankles lessen, and he jerked them apart, almost sobbing in relief as the pain subsided, thankful for a respite however brief. His ankles . . . could move. This was why when Hatori reached for his wrists; he proffered them out, jerking them apart when the pressure against them lessened. Yet, when he tried to stand up, he collapsed. No surprise, he had never been able to stand ever since his ankles were bound, neither did he even try.

"Well then," Hatori sounded relieved. "You wait here, I'll go and get bandages and antiseptics." Quickly, he turned away and started rummaging in his big bag. The cat wanted to laugh; it was too ridiculous, telling him not to move anywhere, when he barely had the energy to move.

He remembered the first time Hatori had showed up in the cage during the initial days when he was still calculating time. He had noticed that every thirty grooves he carved in the wood, Hatori would show up with his black bag. At that point in time, he had not been bound, and he remembered standing up and leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. Both of them would have their staring contest, the cat glaring daggers at Hatori, before finally collapsing to his knees, having lost the little energy he had to hold them upright. Without a word, Hatori would reach into his bag, take out what he needed, and treated him, swiping antiseptic on wounds and bandaging them up securely.

Kyo used to fall sick very rarely, now it was as if, in addition to getting wounded frequently, he felt increasingly unwell. Frequently, he would stay up the whole night leaning against the wall, coughing, his nose running, sneezing every few seconds, his head hurting so hard that he could barely hold it up. It became so bad that Hatori started giving him shots, in order to lessen the times he fell sick, though often, his arms would be bruised and Hatori would have to stick the needle into the bruised area, causing his patient to howl. During those times, the cat would remain upright, eyeing Hatori warily, but quietly following his instructions.

Now, he could barely be bothered to remain strong in front of Hatori. The only thing he could do was to curl up on the floor and whimper. He no longer bothered to hold himself upright, he only wanted to curl up on the floor and hope that Hatori would finish quickly, and leave him alone again. He lay limp as Hatori swiped and bandaged and injected, as he normally did. He continued to cry out whenever he could no longer keep the pain to himself.

He could see that Hatori was being very disturbed by his behavior. Hatori would gaze at him with that unreadable expression, and he would tear his eyes away from that gaze, curling up as small as he could. He saw through his long strands of hair that Hatori would frown, pulse his lips, but not say anything. Normally, he would not say anything at all when he was treating Kyo, only when he wanted to tell Kyo what exactly he was going to do to him, making sure that the cat knew that Hatori did not mean to intentionally hurt him.

Yet, the cat would still tremble every time Hatori made an appearance, but at least, he did not bolt and run for the door. Or maybe, seeing how limp and unmoving he was, maybe he was far too weak. Hatori gazed at his patient. He was much thinner than what he remembered of him outside the cage, he was literally skin and bones in fact, eyes big in a face almost shrunken, and his cheekbones jutting out too prominently for comfort. The cat was surprised to see the worry lines creasing on his forehead, and wondered what Hatori was worried about. Maybe he was worried that he would fall ill through diseases spread through the cat. Yes, that must be it, since had not had a bath in who knew how long. He probably stank to high heaven, though he was probably so used to it that he did not even notice. Hatori must have noticed though, that was probably why he was looking so worried.

Both of them gazed at each other for what seemed like hours, Hatori staring down at his patient with that worried frown, his patient gazing up at him through his grayish, orange bangs, eyes wide, body stiff with tension. Those eyes seemed like windows to the soul, Hatori realized after staring at them. Kyo had probably the most expressive eyes he had ever seen in a person, and whatever he was feeling, it was reflected in his eyes, from the shape of the eyes, to the size, to the color.

Hatori reached out and touched the cat's shoulder without even realizing that he was doing it, until he felt the cat stiffen and try to jerk away. "Kyo," he said finally, taking his hand away. "I . . . I'm not sure . . ." He finally trailed off and turned his gaze to the floor. Never before had Hatori felt so helpless. He was used to treating people, wounds, aches, and illnesses of various kinds. He was not afraid of vomit, neither was he of blood and pus. He always knew what to do, and he always did it right. Hatori had even heard his family members say to him that he was a wonderful doctor, since everything he touched seemed to be a release for them. Hatori would only nod, his expression calm, before moving on to his next patient.

Hatori realized, every single time he came into the cage that he had no idea what to do. He could see all the emotion flirting through the cat's eyes, helplessness, anger, mainly pain and loneliness. Belatedly, he realized that the cat had never even uttered a single word ever since he had been caged. Had he even forgotten how to speak? Or was it that every time he spoke, he would severely punished for it, and thus, had been reduced to this shell of blood and bruises, desperately keeping his mouth shut, knowing that it was the only thing keeping him safe. And even then, not exactly foolproof.

Kyo had been so different when he was much younger. He could smile, he could talk, he could move. Unlike the shadow of his former self lying there, helpless and pleading for release, of any sort.

Hatori hated to do this, but he had no choice. "Kyo . . . I . . . I have to go," he finally said, so softly that the cat could hardly hear him. In reply, the cat moved his wrists and ankles together. Hatori reached for the leather bindings and wound them around his wrists and ankles, making sure that they were not tight. He knew, from watching the guards, that they used his face as a gauge, they would tighten the bindings until his face creased with pain. He refused to that, yet, whenever he came in, the bindings would be at their tightest.

Hatori stood up, picked up his black bag, and turned to leave. When he reached the door, he heard a strange sound, a hoarse, croaking sound from behind him. He paused, debating whether to turn around. He wanted to, so badly, but realized that if he did so, he could be confronted with the helplessness that he too was unable to do anything about. He could not bring himself to look once again at that pitiful figure, and once again, feel the want to help, yet know that he was unable to do anything about it.

Even though he hated to do this, he had no choice. He pushed all compassionate thoughts out of his heart, hardening it. Decisively, he stepped outside into the sunshine, closed the door, and locked it. He kept that calm face as he dropped the key into the guards' hands, and walked slowly and sedately back to his apartment. Once he reached his room though, he dropped onto his bed and held his head in his hands. Once again, he had failed to help the one person who needed his help the most, since he was the only person who actually cared enough.

Alone in the cage, the cat remained kneeling for a few seconds, before collapsing to his side. Once again, he closed his eyes and sank back into his thoughts, shutting out everything else.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi! Yay, my latest chapter is up! Hope you guys like it! I really do have to apologize for this being so late though . . . I kind of lost the discipline to update, but I'll make sure that it doesn't happen next time. Normally, I'd work on my story for half an hour every day, one hour on weekends and days that I don't have school, and I'll make sure that I'll stick to that schedule.**

**Oh, and by the way, I used to be known as LadyAlina, but have since changed my penname to Celebrian Tinuviel. I found a few other users with almost the same penname as my previous one, so I decided to change it, to differentiate it from the other users. I got it from the Elves name generator. And . . . well . . . I'm a huge Lord Of The Rings fan!**

**Thanks so much for all your reviews; it really made my day receiving them! To Sere and Lib, thanks so much, I'm so glad that you like my story, and that you've taken the effort to review as well . . . so thanks again! I'm not able to reply to you guys, hence I'll have to do it here, hope you guys don't mind!**

**Okay, enough of my inane chatter, on with the story! Please review and reply, okay? Constructive criticisms very much welcome! And now, presenting . . . Chapter 8 of Past and Present!**

Chapter 8

After a few days of living in the main compound, Kyo felt as if he had been living there all his life. By that time, he had managed to finish unpacking; the wardrobe was full of his clothes, and the bathroom full of what he deeded to keep himself clean and well groomed. He had managed to full up half the bookshelves with his textbooks, notes, and other reading materials, and was even planning on filling the rest of his bookshelves, though he was not exactly sure of what to use. Back at Shigure's house, he had only one bookshelf, and as a result, half his stuff was on the floor, and he hated it. He preferred clean places, and orderliness. At least here, he had the resources to keep things neat. Already, the smell of polish was fading, replaced by his own, somewhat comforting scent.

He soon got so used to the place that without even realizing it, he ended up getting used to a new routine. Everyday, he would accompany his cousins Hatsuharu and Momiji to school. They were much further from school to Shigure's house, and hence, they would have to take a train, travel for two stops, before they could reach the school. He learnt from Momiji that Hatori used to fetch them to school, but recently, Haru had insisted on going to school on his own, saying that he wanted to be more grownup, since he was already in High School, and Momiji decided to accompany Haru, not wanting to inconvenience Hatori.

It did take some getting used to, going to school with Haru and Momiji instead of rat-face and _her_. Kyo liked peace and quiet, and at least _she_ knew when he wanted it. Anyway, since rat-face was in the running for student president, he always had to leave earlier than the other two. In fact, Kyo rarely saw him in the morning, and he really had to thank his lucky stars for this. If his luck continued, he would only have to deal with him in class, and since there were so many other students, having him there would at least be tolerable. He had Isamu for company anyway.

On the other hand, Kyo was not very used to listening to high pitched noise at high speeds, and the first time he had to accompany them to school, he found himself very tempted to fling Momiji out of the train and let him get run over, but he knew he could not do that. Instead, he growled at Momiji to shut up. Momiji blinked at him, looked up at Haru, and gave his nervous giggle, and Haru remarked in that blank way of his, "Looks like someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning." Kyo growled, flung 'the finger', which he had learnt from Isamu, in Haru's direction and stormed off elsewhere, before Haru could go black on him. He made sure to avoid them after that; sure he would go insane every time he came into contact with him.

To his surprise, the next day, when he was just locking the door, he heard footsteps behind him. He spun around, and blinked when he saw Haru and Momiji standing there. "Morning," Haru stated. "Ready for school?"

Kyo picked up his school bag and walked slowly towards them. "What are you doing here?" he asked. Not many people came here, since this place was so out of the way for them. Haru and Momiji lived all the way at the other end of the compound, and in the inner circle to boot, since the compound was so big, they must have done quite a lot of walking.

Momiji pouted. "You're so ungrateful! We came all the way here only to have you ask what we're doing here!"

Kyo smirked. "Hey, it's a question anybody would ask if they saw two hobos standing outside their door this early in the morning."

That did it. Momiji burst out laughing, and even Haru cracked a smile. Despite himself, Kyo felt his lips twitching, and quickly covered his mouth with his hand. "We'll be late for school if we don't start out now," He mumbled and started walking in the direction of the compound gates. Haru and Momiji followed, and Kyo could still hear Momiji's snorts of laughter behind him.

Kyo could not help feeling his spirits lift at that. That, and the fact that Haru and Momiji actually insisted on going with him to school. He could not decide whether they really wanted to go with him or they were made to, but at least, he still had company, and, he had to admit to himself, he was grateful for that. And a little touched as well.

School still proceeded in the normal way, with Kyo keeping out of rat-face's way, staring out of the window at boring lessons, hanging out at break time with Isamu, learning more Americanized gestures along the way. Kyo had once asked Isamu how he knew all that stuff, and Isamu had told him that he had studied in America, California to be exact, for about five years and had learnt all this stuff from there. "It had been great there," he reminisced with that slight, dreamy smile on his face. "I had so much fun there."

Kyo frowned. "Then how come you came back to Japan to study, then, since you love it there so much."

Isamu shrugged. "My family wanted me to study in Japan, said I was forgetting how to be Japanese. Even though I do like Japan . . . I felt freer in America. In America, I only had a guardian, here, I have all my family members hanging over my back." Isamu sounded bitter at this, and Kyo found himself sympathizing with him. Heaven knew how many problems Kyo had with his own family members. Isamu noticed Kyo's face darken at this, but decided not to press it. Kyo was probably one of those people who probably left when pressed. "By the way, if you want to use those American stuff I taught you, don't do it to the teachers. You'll get into a hell of a lot of trouble."

"How come?" Kyo asked, curiosity aroused. He had not gotten a bad reaction when he showed Haru the middle finger, though it was probably because like him, Haru had no idea what it was in the first place.

This earned a smirk from Isamu. "They're vulgarities, actually! If you wan to be good at English, at least learn how to swear in the language too!" This made both boys burst out laughing, and Kyo felt that maybe it was rather nice to hang out with Isamu after all.

Another change was that this time round, now that Kyo felt more confident in English class, he actually took part in it more often. Normally, Mayuko-sensei had to actually pick on him to ask questions, and Kyo would answer them so grudgingly that Mayuko-sensei would get irritated with him, and both she and the class became pretty much convinced that he was a dunce at the language, which was probably why the whole class had such a heart attack when he topped the level. Now, though, he actually volunteered answers of his own without Mayuko-sensei asking him. Mayuko-sensei even stated that Kyo was starting to become more confident in his abilities, making the entire class, Kyo included, laugh. Kyo normally minded having his name called in class, but this time round, surprisingly, he could even smile at complements.

The only drawback was that when they were leaving the class that day, rat-face accidentally brushed against Kyo's desk, and had muttered, "Show-off," under his breath, but it was still loud enough for Kyo to hear it. Kyo had jumped up and was opening his mouth to yell at him when _she_ intervened, placing a hand on his arm and giving him this pleading look. This took all the anger out of his sails, and he left quickly after that, both embarrassed, and unsure of why he was feeling embarrassed in the first place. He could still feel her presence behind him as he walked off.

His home life, though, was another matter altogether. Every time he left the train station, he felt his heart start hammering in his chest. He hated this, it was as if any moment, he was expecting something to happen, and his heart would clench in dread. Haru and Momiji were no help, they were dismissed earlier since they were in a lower level, and were probably at home now. Once again, he wished he were back at Shigure's place. At least in Shigure's place, he would not have to live with this dread every single time he came home. In fact, he always looked forward to coming home because _she_ was there, and he could actually talk to her without her Yankee and psychic friends intruding in.

It was always hell to have to walk past the whole row of houses to get to his own. He would walk with his face down, staring at the ground, not even daring to look up. At least, he would not have to see the disdain on their faces. However, he could still feel it, from the hate-full murmurs in the air, of them whispering to each other about his cursed form, that he should have been locked up the moment he was born so that they would be spared of the sight of him. Everything was criticized, including the way he walked, talked, or not talked, since he hardly dared to even breathe while walking. Everything he did or said was taken out of context, critiqued, and handed back to him in the form of disdainful mutters.

It was always a relief when he returned back to his own house, him even involuntarily sighing in relief every time he was able to lock the door behind him and drop his key into the basket provided. He was safe here. Nobody would know what he was doing; nobody would despise him for everything he did. Here, he was alone, and safe from prying eyes. He could even breathe properly and not feel like he was polluting the environment.

Yet, after a few hours of silence, the quiet itself would get to him. He would wonder what _she_ was doing back at Shigure's house, and the need to talk to her grew even stronger. Especially since it was downright impossible to leave this place now that he was here, to have to go through that walkway again. By that time, he would have already finished his homework, having started on it the moment he changed into his normal clothes, since there was hardly anything to do and he would much rather finish his homework first and get it out of the way. Normally, he would pull his schoolbooks out to study or read if he had enough of studying, anything to take his mind off the quiet.

At around seven, he would hear a knock on his door. He would open it, to see one of the maids standing there, holding a tray of food. He would take the tray, bow, and murmur his thanks. The first time the maid came with his food, he had just stood there, and earned a slap across the face because she accused him of showing disrespect. It smelt delicious; yet, it would make him feel even more homesick. By that time, they would have already started eating, and as usual _her_ food would have been absolutely delicious. He had always looked forward to mealtimes every time when he was still staying at Shigure's place, because he knew she was there. Now, he was completely alone, and the feeling ate into him. He ended up leaving half his food unfinished because his stomach was too tense to digest properly. An hour later, she would reappear to take the tray away, and once again, he would have to bow and murmur his thanks.

He would bathe after eating. At least here, he did not have to share the bathroom with four people. He could bathe anytime he wanted to. Yet, he preferred to bathe after eating, for who knew what reason. It was as if he wanted everything to be almost the same as when he was still staying at Shigure's and he normally bathed during that time. Here, he still continued to bathe at the same time, once after dinner, and once first thing in the morning.

Once after bathing, he would either read or study until it was time to sleep. Then, he would retire into his bedroom, turn off the lights, toss and turn for who knew how long, before finally drifting off to sleep. Yet, when he woke up the next day, he felt as if he hadn't really slept at all, and he would be more than eager to step into the shower, because at least he would be woken up somewhat after that.

After breakfast, provided by the maid, he would pack his bag, change into his school uniform, find Haru and Momiji waiting for him outside his door, and they would all go off to school together. The same cycle would repeat, differing only on his martial arts days. There, he would practice with his shishou, have his dinner with him though he ended up cooking because shishou really could not be trusted around a stove, and go home after dinner.

The day before, Minami Kinoshita asked Kyo whether his parents had agreed to let him take literature. Kyo had just blinked up at her and shrugged. She had turned away, commenting rather loudly to another classmate how Prince Yuki was a much better person to hold an actual conversation with. It then occurred to him that he had not asked whether he could take Literature yet. However, the idea of actually going up to Akito, even speaking to him, sent shivers down his spine. There was no way in hell that Kyo was going to strike up a conversation with Akito. He still remembered the last time Akito spoke to him, and even though the scars had long since healed; the memories and implications were still there. There was no way he could take Literature now, he was completely trapped.

And yet . . . it was then that he realized that he really did want to do Literature after all. Reading had been a bit of a guilty pleasure to him; though he would much rather die than admit it. He did not really read all that much, since there were other things he preferred to do, such as talk to _her_ or practice his martial arts, especially martial arts since they were his only ticket out of the cage.

At the very least, at least it gave him an up over rat-face. Rat-face was so wonderful at everything else. Heck, he got the best grades, without even having to really study for them. Once again, he had topped the class, with Nora Koizumi, the class smart, coming in second. He was in the running for Student President yet practically everybody knew that he was going to get it in the end. It made no difference whether elections were going to be held, everybody already knew the results. And, he started his martial arts one year after Kyo, and yet, was much better than him. He was well esteemed by his family members, all of them frequently comparing how smart, mature, gentle, well behaved he was, as compared to the cat, a disappointment in everything. He was so sick of hearing the same old thing every time, that it was all he could do to not fly at whoever mentioned it and scratch his or her face. Yet, he restrained himself, knowing that he would get into even more trouble, and once again, prove himself inferior to the rat.

Yet, he had topped the class in English, which meant that he was better than rat-face, at least in that one area. Involuntarily, that brought a smile to his face every single time he thought about it. He was one of the few selected to handle Literature, of whom rat-face was not part of. Wasn't it enough, knowing that at least, he had beaten rat-face at something?

Even if he never got to do Literature in the end, at least, he had the change to do it. Rat-face did not, and that was enough to make him beam with joy. Yet, for some reason, he still wanted to do Literature, and the though of not getting his way sent tendrils of disappointment coursing through him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi guys! This is my latest chapter up, and I really hope you guys would like it! I admit, it was a bit hard for me to think of what to write, because I ended up falling sick with flu, so I really hope that this chapter makes sense. I'm much better now, don't worry, but I hope that my illness has not affected my ability to write.**

**To Danny, thanks so much for your review, it really made my day receiving it! Yours was an anonymous review, so I wasn't able to reply to it via fan fiction, so I hope you don't mind me replying to it here. Don't worry, I'll continue to keep updating, so look out for that!**

**Oh well, I'm sure all of you are looking forward to finding out what's going to happen, so I won't hold you guys back. I really hope you guys like this chapter, and please remember to review! I look forward to receiving encouragements and constructive criticisms, especially when my writing is concerned, because I would love to improve as well. Thanks so much in advance, and have a nice time reading! Cheers!**

Chapter 9

The cat gazed out of the window and shivered again, wrapping his blanket tighter around himself. It was just starting into autumn; he could see that the leaves on the trees were starting to turn brown. So far, none of them had dropped yet, but he supposed they would soon, and then winter could come, and he would be forced to vacate the present room. He shuddered at the thought of having to move because it involved people, people who would hit, whip and radiate disdain. It was as if something inside him died a little every single time he heard them speak about him. Soon, there would be nothing left, and he wondered what would happen if that did happen. In a way, he almost looked forward to it, because when he reached that stage, it would be a change, though whether for the better or the worse, he did not know. He almost wanted to know what would happen next.

In the meantime, he could still crouch in his corner and watch the leaves turn brown. That shade of brown . . . it was the same shade of brown that _her_ hair color had been. A bitter smile flirted across his face. He still remembered everything about her, yet the more he remembered her, the more he wanted to see her, and that was impossible now. She was out of his life, and whether she still cared for him or not, there was nothing he could do about it, except lie here and remember her.

He could still picture her as clearly as if she was standing right in front of him. Her features were ingrained right into his mind, and he doubted that he could ever get rid of them. Her hair was light brown, the same color as the leaves right outside his window. Her eyes were of the same shade of brown as well, literally sparkling with life. She had an infectious smile, every time she smiled that smile of hers, his own lips would automatically turn up as well, and hers would grow even bigger as a result.

He even remembered the clothes she loved to wear. She loved to wear bright colors, yellows, pinks, light blues . . . those were her favorite colors. He still remembered the time her friends Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima had dragged him and Yuki out to buy her a new swimming costume, and they had finally chosen pink because it suited her the most. After all, her mother, Kyoko, was the red butterfly, and her father was like snow, and pink was in the middle of those two colors.

Yet, pink had suited her in other ways too. She was so feminine at times. He still remembered that she loved to wear skirts, and he had rarely seen her not wearing one. Whenever they walked together, her hand would reach out to hold his, intertwining her fingers with his. She would lean against him as they walked, she made sure that they never really touched so that he would not turn into his cat form, yet he could still feel the warmth of her body, they were that close. At those times, he felt the urge to hold her close to him, to protect her against the cold, or anything that might threaten her. When she looked up at him, with that sweet smile of hers, it was all he could do to not fling his arms around her, and hold her close to him.

It was even down to the way she walked, her footsteps hardly making a sound. She was so quiet when she walked, and when she ran, her footsteps were as light as drizzle. Her footsteps were gentle and slow, slightly hesitant and unsure at times, but whenever she walked with him, those footsteps seemed to loose their shyness and blossom with cheerful confidence. She would even run ahead of him sometimes if something caught her eye, and he would smile and walk bigger strides to catch up with her, where invariably, she would show him the object that had caught her fancy, and they would both laughingly admire it together.

Her cooking was delicious, he remembered looking forward to mealtimes especially when he knew that it was her who would be cooking. She was such a wonderful cook; she could make raw food look appetizing in half an hour's time, whether it was fish, vegetables, meat or rice, and when he tasted them, it was all he could do to not stuff everything into his mouth and ask for more. Mealtimes were always a joy whenever she cooked.

Whenever she ate, her movements were slow and dainty, and she spent most of the time looking around, making sure that everybody was eating. She could tell when someone was in a bad mood, because that person would be more likely to play around with his food rather than eat, and she would immediately show her concern by asking that person whether he was okay. That person would quickly deny that he was feeling bad, but she would not be convinced, and would continue to glance at that person from time to time, as if to reassure herself. Yet, she knew when to keep quiet, to just let that person ventilate when they were alone. She never asked more than once whether someone was okay; yet that person would automatically end up confiding in her, because her concern was so obvious. However, it was to him and him alone that she shared her most private thoughts.

Even though he was forced to move to the main house when the curse ended, or rather, when everybody else's curses had ended, he still ended up eating at Shigure's place at least once a week. There, he would be treated to her cooking, and after that, she would invite him up to the roof, the designated special place for both of them. There, they would simply talk. She would ask him whether he was fine living at the Sohma compound, and everything would come gushing out, about how unwelcome he was there, and how he was made to feel as if himself breathing polluted the Sohma environment. Once in a while, his eyes would feel hot and wet, and he would have to turn away from her, so that she would not see him upset. Yet, a gentle hand on his arm and whispers of sympathy were enough to calm him down and even cause him to smile again.

However, their conversations were not one-sided. He would ask her about her experiences, and though he could see that she did not want to make him upset, she would say that everything was fine with her. However, when he pressed further, she would tell him everything. She would tell him about how confused she was about her future. She did not have enough money to further her education, yet she did want to so badly. She had felt bad about wanting to continue her education, because she had already promised her mother that when she graduated from High School, she would start work, but yet, she still did want to continue her education. She would cling to his arm and snuggle against him as she spoke, and automatically, his arm would curl around her slight frame. He would tell her not to worry, that he would find some way to provide funds for her to further her education and that no matter what, her mom would want her to be happy, and she would smile up at him and snuggle tighter against him. He even heard her murmur to herself that, "Kyo-kun would always make me feel better . . ." and his face would turn red at that. Even now, remembering that comment would bring a smile to his face.

Besides talking about serious things, they also talked about random things as well. Once, they had spent an entire session up on the roof talking about whether Shigure was allergic to paper, since he never seemed to do any work. Sometimes, it was school gossip as well, whether Mayuko-sensei liked Hatori or now that Minami Kinoshita had left the Prince Yuki Fan club, what was she going to do. She had told both of them that she quit the club due to prior engagements, but both of them were left to speculate what those engagements were.

He smiled sadly at the though. Even though he had not been able to accompany her, at least he had kept his promise to her. He had already known that she wanted to further her education, and the day before he was to be locked up, Akito had come into his room just as he had finished packing his things, and told him that he would grant him two last wishes, to give him the chance to help the people who meant the most to him. He had glanced at Akito as he said this, and saw that the family head was looking uncharacteristically saddened. Normally, the head would not have much to do with the cat, much less, actually feel for his plight. The very fact that Akito had walked all the way into the cat's dwelling place from the main house had obviously meant something, but he was far too mentally exhausted to dwell on it for now. "It would be my last gift to you," he had told him. "Before you pass out of my control."

Kyo had turned to the window and stared at it, thinking. This was his chance, really, to give Tohru the chance to live out her dreams. He had already told Shigure, or rather, practically begged him, and Shigure, seeing how much Kyo had wanted it, had promised to talk to Akito about it, even going so far as to say that he would make sure that he succeeded. Now though, this chance was practically give to him, and he intended to make full use of it. Perhaps, it would have made her mother happy as well, and she might have forgiven him if she was alive. He sighed. Kyoko's death had been the one thing weighing him down with his relationship with Tohru, and at least, Tohru could now be happy with someone else, or at least, happy that she did not have to be held back by her memories of someone she would never see ever again.

Finally, he turned back to Akito. "Is it possible that the money in my account be given to her?" he asked. "She told me she wants to further her education. And . . ." he paused and bit his lip. He had to do this, no matter how much it would hurt him. This was the first time he had really felt that someone had loved him, and now, he was going to have to give it up. Yet, he wanted so badly for her to be happy and to move on. He wanted her to be able to live her life without her memories of him dragging her down. He was going to have to give up so much in return for this. He had no one left to love him, and now that he was going to the cage, it was going to hurt even more. It would be too much to bear for him, to know that he had no one left to depend on for love, once he was in the cage. Without her, he would be completely uncared for, completely alone, abandoned to the whims of his captors with not even a single mode of defense to protect his sanity.

He felt something wet drip onto his hand, and he looked down. Another drop fell. His hands went up to his face and he was surprised to find that his cheeks were wet. He quickly wiped his cheeks with his sleeve, but still, more tears streamed down. He had never really cried before, the last time he had cried was when he was at the family villa and Akito had forced him to realize that he had actually loved Tohru. Instinctively, he turned away from Akito and placed his hands on one of the boxes. He would not look at Akito; he could not let him see him like this.

Yet, he could not let her be unhappy for his own selfish sake. He had to let her go, in order for her to be happy. He would feel love again, especially since he was going straight into the cage in a few hours time. He would not feel anything ever again, once he was in the cage. Once he stopped feeling emotions, he would be fine, or at least, he hoped. Never again would he see her again, and she would never see him again. If she continued to remember him, then she would never be free. Almost at the back of his mind, he heard her whispered voice, tinged with sadness, "I'll never be able to forget about Kyo-kun, because Kyo-kun means too much to me."

He wiped at his eyes again with his sleeve and bowed his head. "Please, let her memories of me be erased from her mind. Let her move on and be happy, without me to hold her back." He desperately tried to let his voice remain steady, yet it still trembled. It would only be selfish of him to hold her back, to use her love for him to torture her, just to ensure his own peace of mind, his own selfish need of wanting to be loved. No, it was better of her not to know him at all.

"So be it," Akito replied, his voice so quiet and sad that even Kyo could still feel wonder at this. "I will let Hatori know." With that, he turned and left the room. He sounded as if he was hurrying away.

The next think he knew, his legs gave out beneath him, and he sank down to the ground on his knees, one hand still clutching at the box. He buried his face into his arm and waited for the tears to come, but yet, now that he was alone, nothing came. He felt dead inside, as if something had been stripped from him. He was far too spent for even tears.

A few hours later, when they came to get him, they found him in the same position, one hand clutching his collar, the other curled up against the box, and his head resting on that arm. He had looked up when he first heard their footsteps and now, he pushed himself upright and waited for them to do what he knew they were going to do. There was nothing of him left to fight against them. He was ready, there was nothing left that he needed to do.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi guys! My latest chapter is up, finally! I'm really sorry I wasn't able to put this up as soon as I wanted to, because I ended up with a lot of school stresses, both homework and social problems, and my head still hurts. However, at least this chapter is up, and ready to read! I'm glad that at least, I have my stories to go back to when I'm feeling down. My mom calls this a form of escapism, yet I don't see what's wrong with escapism while she does. Oh well!**

**Now, to answer some reviews. Thanks for them, guys, I really appreciate it, and thank you for the time you have taken to read and review my stories. Thanks so much to all my reviews who have taken the time to read this, and give their valuable comments.**

**To LovelyUgly: Thanks! Yup, I'm doing what you wanted me to do! Happy? Heh, your review scared me at first, I thought you were angry with me! Sweatdrops**

**To Susan: Hey, thanks! I believe he did, though if she still manages to remember, it really would show her love for him.**

**Oh well, enough of my chitchat. Now for the story! I really hope you guys like this, and please remember to read and review, it really would make my day receiving them! If you guys have any problems with this chapter, please yet me know, so I can correct any mistakes made. Constructive criticisms very much welcome!**

**Until next time, see yah!**

Chapter 10

Kyo sighed and drummed his fingers restlessly against his table. He could not wait for school to end, especially when they were in the middle of that stupid math lesson that he was supposed to be attending. It was a complete waste of time, in his opinion. He shot an irritated glance at rat-face, who was sitting straight at his table and staring at the teacher with undivided attention, his pencil moving to take down the notes on the board. Of course, rat-face would find math easy for him, he literally found everything easy. Except for English, that is. It was he, the useless cat at everything else, who excelled in it.

He glared down at his math notes, yet nothing seemed to register in his mind. His maths grades were the least of his worries. Right now though, he desperately had to think of a way to get out of taking literature. He was no longer under Shigure, so he could not ask Shigure for permission. Now that he was living at the main house, he had to go directly to Akito to ask for permission, and Akito always had the power to render him trembling in his presence, his mind so clouded with fear that he would hardly think of anything.

The Sohma family structure was rather unique. With Akito ruling from the top tier, and the ruling council as his advisory board. The ruling council was made up of nine people in total, and they met to discuss issues pertaining to the Sohmas' wellbeing. His father was one of the council members, and Kyo shuddered at the though of having to confront him. His father . . . it was no secret that his father absolutely despised the very ground on which he walked. He never dared to approach his father and because he had no idea where his father was staying, he always dreaded returning back to the Sohma compound because he was so afraid of running into him. Even the though of being with him for even once second was enough to send shivers down Kyo's spine.

Yet, he knew that if he wanted to request anything from the Sohmas, he would have to confront Akito, about it, and this would lead to Akito discussing his situation with the rest of the ruling council. He cringed at the though of it. Most likely, he would have to be present as well, and with his father there . . . it would be even worse. He knew what they though of the cat, that the cat was completely worthless, and had to be trashed into submission, whether by physical or emotional means. Would it be much better if he could just avoid the whole situation? Keep a low profile, so they would not notice him. No sense looking for trouble if you could avoid it.

As much as he wanted to do literature, he could not. That was the unfairness of it. If rat-face had been the one to do well in English, then it would be no problem for him. All he had to do was to tell Hatori that he wanted to do literature, and Hatori would bring this up in the next council meeting, and everybody there would literally fall around, going on and on about how wonderful the rat was, being so good at such an important subject, in addition to everything he was already good at. Everybody loved the rat, so of course they would be willing to do his bidding.

How about the cat? Forget it, it was not going to happen. The cat had no such defense. Sure, Hatori could bring it up, but then they would call him into their presence, and then start mocking him on his failings, finally sending him away telling him that no matter what, the cat was useless at everything and would most likely fail Literature, like everything else. It was no good even trying, they would tell him; the cat was doomed to fail at everything. He would die a complete failure, locked up in a tiny, neglected room with no one to even mourn him.

As much as he hated to do this, he had to find Mayuko-sensei after school and tell her that he could not do Literature. It just had to be done otherwise Mayuko-sensei would just keep asking, and if he was not able to give a satisfactory answer, she would call his family. If there were one thing that would make them even angrier with him, it would be an outsider prying into their business.

However, what could he say? Mayuko-sensei was rather nice as a teacher, but she could be mocking and sarcastic if she wanted to, especially on misbehaving students, as evident from what went on in class almost every day. He made a face, remembering the time he had tried to take off during Valentine's Day during his first year of High School. Both of them had been pretty rude to each other, her even smacking him on the head with a book. However, now that he was starting to take part in discussions in class, she was starting to pay attention to his opinions, instead of just dismissing him as someone who wanted to cause trouble.

At that moment, the bell rang. Students yelled with joy and started packing immediately, despite the fact that the poor sensei in front was still speaking. Kyo winced in sympathy; heaven knew how much he hated it when people completely disregarded what he had to say, and he definitely knew how much it hurt. He should have been used to it; yet, it still stung, no matter how much he tried to tell himself that it did not matter. Unfortunately for him, and most math teachers, math was not a very popular subject. He started packing too, and almost jumped in surprise when he felt someone tap his shoulder.

"Next time, don't jump up on people like that!" he yelled, spinning around to glare at the offender, while trying to hide how shocked he had been by that tap, it was sure to ruin his tough guy reputation in school. His eyes narrowed even further when he realized who the offender had been.

Arisa Uotani smirked at him. "Carrot-top sure is cute when he gets ruffled," she remarked to Saki Hanajima, who was standing next to her. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Tohru was standing behind them, but he pretended not to notice. Yet, the moment he saw her, he realized that there was no way he could scream at her friends in front of her, it would definitely upset her.

"What do you want," he finally demanded.

Uotani raised an eyebrow at this, but did not comment on it. "Mayuko-sensei wants to talk to you. Why? Forgot to do your homework again?"

"Kyo-kun, are you alright?" Tohru quickly stepped forward. "You look very worried!"

"I'm fine," he said quickly. Tohru did not look convinced; she was still gazing anxiously at him.

Neither were Uotani and Hanajima, now they were staring at him too. "What's wrong with you now?" Uotani asked in exasperation. "Don't tell me you're scared of her? What's the worse she can do to you anyway, send you to detention?"

"It's not that," Kyo snapped, despite himself. "I . . . I'm going to see Mayuko-sensei," he finally muttered and turned away. "You guys go home first," and with that, he stalked away. Tohru really loved to worry her head off about people, and he really wished that he could actually think before speaking. More often than not, he always said things the moment they came to his head, and ended up regretting them because they caused Tohru to get upset, and other people, for that matter.

There was nothing to be done now, anyway. Now, he had to go and see Mayuko-sensei, and tell her the excuse that he had not even been able to think of. Maybe he should just tell her that his parents did not allow him, but that would only make her ask even more questions. English was very important these days, and which parent would not want their children to have such a head start over the others?

At that moment, a hand reached out and grabbed his collar. Kyo jumped and gave an involuntary yelp, then spun on his heal to glare at the offender, while at the same time, cursing himself over his inattention. Martial artists were not supposed to be scared easily, yet this was already the second time he had been shocked out of his skin.

"Well," Mayuko-sensei stood before him, arms crossed, tapping her foot on the floor. "If I remember correctly, didn't I tell you to report back to me two days ago?"

Kyo flushed with anger and embarrassment. He shrugged; he had nothing he could say to alleviate her anger.

When no answer was forthcoming, she said, "Well, Hatori-san called me today."

Kyo's eyes almost fell out of their sockets. "What?" he sputtered. "How?"

This time, it was Mayuko-sensei's turn to flush with embarrassment. Apparently, Shigure had told Hatori to call her because he heard that she was very ill, and Hatori had called because he had been worried about her. She could still remember how embarrassed both of them were, because she herself had not expected Hatori, and knowing the feelings caused by even a mention of Hatori's name, had been thankful for something to take her mind of him. That was, until Shigure caused Hatori to call. Shigure was probably laughing at both of them now, for being so stupid around each other. That Shigure! "Never mind how," she added quickly, hoping that Kyo had not seen her apparent lapse in composure. "Anyway, I told him about your results as well as the fact that you did well enough in English to be able to cope with Literature, and he told me he would speak to your family head about it."

Mayuko-sensei frowned when she saw Kyo's face pale slightly. Then, the boy shook his head. "I . . . okay," he said finally. Then, he turned and stalked away. Mayuko sighed. That boy . . . things did not change that easily. At times, his behavior would even cause amusement to her. Yet, she could not help feeling that something was definitely off about him. Unlike the rest of her students, he, and Yuki for that matter, never spoke about their home lives. Yet, looking at Kyo that day, seeing how his eyes had widened at the mention of his family, told her that there was definitely something wrong with his home situation. Maybe she could call Hatori and find out what was going on. Kyo could be a nice boy at times, and she realized that she did not want anything bad to happen to him. Heck, she was even starting to grow fond of him! Yes, she would definitely call Hatori about it.

Kyo could not deny it, but somehow, he felt that that day, the journey towards the Sohma compound was twice as fast as a normal day. Moreover, he felt slightly unwell, as if his head hurt. Then again, it had probably been because he had spent the whole of that day trying to find a way to get out of taking Literature, only to have Mayuko-sensei tell Hatori about it. Things always seemed to backfire on him. Was he not the cat, after all? He should have expected it.

He slowed his steps when he saw the Sohma compound in the distance. Today, the fear he felt was even worse, because this time, he knew that he would definitely be in trouble. His stomach churned, and he felt as if any moment, his lunch would be all over the pavement. There was no help for it, he might as well get it over sooner or later, and hope for the best. If he was lucky, maybe he could get away with a slap or two. Then again, there was his temper to contend with . . .

Slowly, he walked between the gates that led into Sohma compound. Sure enough, he saw Kureno heading towards him. "Akito-sama would like to see you," he said.

Kyo simply nodded, the lump in his throat too big to squeeze words past, and they headed towards the main house.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi guys! My latest chapter up! I really hope you like this chapter, because I have to admit, it's much harder to write chapters where the protagonist is sitting and musing, as compared to chapters where the protagonist is actually doing things, because the writing can get repetitive. Please let me know if I end up being too repetitive, okay? Thanks!**

**A huge thank you to all my reviewers, you guys really made my day sending them! That's why I try to thank each of you individually for taking the time to write a review for my story, shows how much it really means to me, to have your reviews. Once again, thanks so much!**

**Right, Chapter 11 of Past and Present is up, hope you guys like it!**

Chapter 11

The days were getting colder, the leaves browning and flying off the trees in doves. Some of them flew into his cage, even landing on him, and he would collect them and store them in a pile at the corner of the room. He had nothing with him to challenge him intellectually, and it was with a sudden fear that he realized that one of these days, his mind would just disassemble, and he would no longer be able to use it. It was no surprise really, since he was the cat, he was never given anything. All he had was a tattered yukata for a blanket.

Every few hours, a leaf would fly into his cage, and he would add that to his collection, each time counting the amount of leaves he had. Sometimes, he would sort out the leaves by their colours, arranging them from lighter shades to darker shades, or the other way round. Sometimes, he would also form patterns with those leaves, once, he had created the likeness of the tree outside his cage, though a few seconds later, the breeze ruined the pattern, blowing half the leaves to the other end of the room. He did not bother to get the leaves back, because it would hurt far too much to even move an inch, much less, to the other end of the room. They made his stomach clench with dread. If they noticed that the room was in a mess because of the scattered leaves, or even worse, slipped on them, he would be punished severely. This was particularly the case after a 'feeding'.

He could literally feel the ice in the air, now that winter was fast approaching. It caused him to shiver almost profusely, the icy cold biting into his very bones, penetrating into his heart. It was as if his heart was starting to freeze. He felt sure that he was going to die of the cold one of these days, yet he could not bring himself to actually dread it. Would it actually be better to suffer and die now, than wait until he was old . . . spending his life waiting for death because there was nothing else he could do. None of the other zodiac members actually visited him, and Tohru was far away now, hopefully happier now than she was when she was with him.

He shivered profusely, before finally curling up on the floor, snuggling under his blanket. At least it was not so cold now; he had his own body heat, safe and protected under his blanket. Even though he still shivered from time to time, due to the fact that the blanket had holes in them, at least he did not have to feel sharp sting of ice in the breeze.

He wondered whether it would be best for him to move to the holding room now. As much as he did not want to wait for death for the rest of his life, he still stubbornly clung to whatever life he had now. He was not sure why, all he knew was that he did not want to die now. Maybe he could suggest it to Hatori the next time Hatori came in. Hatori was probably the only person who remotely cared for him, though he never said much. Then again, he never really said a lot to begin with anyway.

When was the last time he himself spoke? That thought had never occurred to him before, or at least, as long has he could remember. Yet, here it was, suddenly popping up in his mind, as sudden as a slap. Other than whimpers, gasps, cries of pain, he had never used his voice, and the previous examples could not exactly be called 'speaking'. Rather, it was noise, as people liked to term it, and more often than not, it would get him into trouble.

The ironic thing was that the more they punished him, the more 'noise' he would make. He wished that they would finally realize it on their own, since he could not tell them himself. Anything that came out of his mouth was noise, they told him, and should be beaten out of him, through horrid, mocking words, whips and sticks. The moment he made a sound, he would be punished severely for it. It left him half unconscious on the floor, hardly able to think from the pain, too weak to even cry.

Perhaps, it was the humiliation of his new surroundings, the very fact that he had nothing left to call his own, that he was at the complete mercy of his family members to do to him what they willed, or in most cases, to torment. He had gritted his teeth, refusing to cry out every time he was beaten, refusing to give them the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. He had even answered back, refusing to show that he feared them, that he could be controlled. He refused to eat they way they wanted him to eat, preferring to starve himself and get beaten for it rather than face the humiliation. He had refused to bow to them, or even kneel to them, forcing himself to stand upright with his arms crossed every time he heard the door unlock, leaning against the wall as if he had not a single care in the world.

Yet, bit by bit, this show of spirit had been worn out of him. He was starting to bend under the abuse. He had not been sure how exactly it had happened, but all he knew was that he could not be bothered to struggle anymore. Why was he even struggling in the first place, since he was going to die here anyway? No matter what he did, all he ever got was beatings, and in severe cases, whippings in return. It was then that the truth of his situation sank in. He was going to die here, so why on earth was he making things harder for himself? He completely deserved whatever beatings they gave him, since it was he himself that brought it upon him. Little by little, he started doing what they wanted him to do. He soon knelt on the floor and bowed to greet them, he started picking food off the floor to eat with his mouth. The eating of the floor and the bowing were the hardest to do; he still flushed with shame every time he did it. Yet, the very fact that they reduced his beatings because of it made him continue. The still continued to beat him, but at least, they were less than the previous times. He remembered being beaten unconscious half the time, because he was too proud to bow to their wills. He was nothing, really, just a shadow, just waiting for the day that everything would end.

He sighed involuntarily and shifted slightly under his blanket to take the pressure of some wounds he had received the previous day. He wondered what his voice would sound like now. More likely than not, it would probably be rather harsh and guttural; sounding like it had not been used for a long time. He probably sounded so incoherent that nobody would understand him now.

Then again, he could not see what use he had for his voice, now that he was locked up here. There was nobody whom he could actually use it on. The guards would not listen to him; in fact, they were the ones who had him beaten every time he used his voice. They were certainly not going to listen to him, in fact, it probably gave them pleasure because it would give them a chance to hurt him, and he did not want to give them that satisfaction as long as he could help it. The maids would not listen to him either; they were always pushing him to eat faster, probably hoping to be out of the cat room as soon as possible. It also helped that the guards were also always there with them.

Sometimes, Hatori would come in as well, to make sure he was healthy, or rather, as healthy as he could be under the circumstances. Until now, he still wondered why Hatori bothered to come; all he ever did was patch up wounds, it was probably thanks to him that they were not infected. Maybe, that was his purpose, to make sure that he was able to survive, despite the way they treated him. He always asked him how he felt; yet the cat never told him anything. However, at least once Hatori was done with him, his wounds seemed to hurt less. They did not sting so much, and he would actually be able to think, or at least, for coherent thoughts.

Even worse, he could not even bring himself to look into Hatori's face. Hatori would probably have a disgusted look on his face, just like the guards and maids who came into contact with him. Anyone who ever came into contact with the cat always looked disgusted, rushing to do what they had to do to him before leaving as fast as they could, so that at least the aura of the cat did not contaminate them. Hatori was probably like everybody else, yet, no matter how he tried, he could never school himself into looking at his face for confirmation. Hatori was the only person who actually seemed to remotely care for him, and to see him with that same expression that he had been faced with every time someone came into the cage would break him.

None of the other zodiacs ever came to visit him. He had no idea what they were even doing at the very moment. He had no idea how long he had spent in the cage, maybe five or ten years had already passed. They could either be working outside or still studying, but how on earth was he to tell? He had no idea. He had never seen any of them ever since he had been put into the cage. He had never really been close to them in the first place, but at least he had been able to gain their respect. Then again, their respect probably did not mean much; look at how they had not even bothered to visit him.

Yet, what if one day, he really needed his voice? A few days ago, or at least, what he reckoned was a few days ago, Hatori had visited. He had remained silent all through Hatori's ministrations, even when Hatori asked him if he was okay, but when Hatori was about to leave, he had half risen to his knees, and extended his hands, and tried to cry out Hatori's name, but all that came out was a weak croak. He knew that Hatori had heard him; Hatori had already stepped out of the cat room and was about to slide the door shut, and he had frozen there the moment he heard that sound. After what had seemed like forever to him, Hatori had shaken his head and locked the door behind him.

The cat shook his head, wishing he could rid himself of his thoughts. Once again, during that few minutes, he had experienced something akin to hope. He had actually been hoping that Hatori would turn around, pick him up since he was too weak to walk, and bring him out of the cat room, and into the bright sunshine again, even if were only for a few minutes. That was all he asked for, to feel cared for, to feel human again. Needless to say, he had been disappointed again. Hatori had just walked off. It was his fault that he ended up feeling so disappointed, once again; he had been stupid enough to raise his own hopes.

At that moment, a breeze drifted into the cage again, and once again, the cat felt the icy tendrils of cold. This time, the cold seemed to seep into his very bones, but he could not bring himself to care anymore. At the very least, he told himself, he would probably fall sick because of the cold, and hopefully, he would not have to really exist anymore. He half considered flinging off the blanket and facing the cold head on, but could not bring himself to, it would be too painful.

In the end, it did not really matter what he did, nobody would care anyway. He simply closed his eyes, and waited once again for sleep to send him to blissful oblivion.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi guys! Chapter 12 is up, and ready to read! I hope you guys like this, and I really apologise for taking such a long time with this chapter. It was supposed to be up a few days a go, but for some reason, I ended up with a massive mental block and as a result, was completely unable to work up the discipline to post. You guys can find the story of my mental block in my life journal, by the way.**

**Thanks for all your reviews; it really made my day receiving them! Now, to reply to some reviews . . .**

**To BottleofWater: Hey, that's a cute name! Thanks so much for your review, by the way!**

**To Susan: Hey, thanks for your review! You're right, it did seem rather directionless, so I wrote the ending of the story (or at least, the outline of the ending) so now I know how the story ends. I really hope that for the rest of my chapters, there would be some direction leading to the end. Once again, thanks for bringing that up, it really helped a lot in reminding me of what I needed to do.**

**Well, enough of my chitchat! Presenting, Chapter 12 of "Past and Parallels"! Please read and review, constructive criticism very much welcome! Until next time, see yah!**

Chapter 12

It was normally a long walk, about half a kilometer in fact, to get to the main house. For Kyo, it felt as if it was the shortest walk he had ever undertaken. He could literally feel the butterflies in his stomach fluttering, getting increasingly agitated as he covered the distance between the gate and the main house. Kureno even glanced at him from time to time, and mentioned that he was looking rather pale. Kyo had been about to reply, but he found the lump in his throat too difficult to push words past. He simply shook his head and moved forward.

When they finally reached the gate leading to the main house, Kureno told Kyo to take off his shoes. Kyo blinked in surprise and stared at him, Kureno had not made a move to take his own off. Kureno sighed. "Akito-sama has requested that you remove your shoes here." From the slightly ironic tone in his voice when he used the word 'requested' Kyo knew that 'requested' was the last thing Akito would think of doing. He did not bother to answer; he just took his socks and shoes off and left them at the gate. He had been at the main house before, though the last time he had been here, it had been his first time, with his mother. He had taken his shoes off as well, though at that point in time, he was probably too young to even think of asking why.

Now though, he did have an inkling of the reasons behind it. Dirt was, after all, preferable to having the monster touch the floorboards with the skin of his feet, and the dirt would provide a protection between his feet and the floor, so he would not 'dirty' the floor. They did not give him any sandals to wear either; they would of course, not want to dirty their sandals.

Almost instinctively, Kyo glanced over to the right of the gate and saw a descript path leading to a rough, stone staircase, and at the top of the stairs, rested a hut, so small that it was half the size of his living room. It was so old that it was grey with age, and there was barely any paint left on the concrete walls. He turned to Kureno, pointed at the hut, and asked, "Is that the cat house?"

Kureno was struck almost speechless by the tone in Kyo's voice. Even though he barely knew Kyo, he had always associated the boy with harsh yelling, fights and curses. Yet, when Kyo spoke those words, they had a ring of quiet sadness in it, sounding far too old for a boy of his age. He turned away from the boy's eyes, he had heard stories of how expressive they were, and he really did not want to feel pity and guilt at that moment in time. "Yes," he muttered, almost briskly. "Hurry up, Akito-sama is waiting to see you. Without waiting for the cat, he stalked up the stairs. By the sound of the creaking staircase behind him, he knew that Kyo had followed him up the stairs and into the main house.

Kureno led him down the corridor, stopping at the third door from the entrance on the right. Kyo noticed that most of the doors were closed, only a window at the far end of the corridor let in just barely enough light for him to see his way past. A few of the servants walked past, all of them looked away from him the moment they passed him. He wrapped his arms around himself, tucked his head down and followed Kureno into the open doorway. When Kureno stopped, he looked up, and froze.

The shutters in the room were down, giving the effect of semi darkness. The candle on the table only served to throw the faces of the three people present into dark shades. They looked almost sinister, with their dark brows and shadowed faces, no doubt by the shadows thrown by the light of the candle. He could recognize the people: Akito, his father, and Hatori. All three of them were kneeling, facing the center of the room. Akito was behind the table, and while the other two were in front of him. Hatori was on his left, while Kyo's father was on his right. Kyo gazed at the ground; he did not want to look at neither Akito nor his father. Involuntarily, his hands curled into fists, he had to resist the urge to glare at the people present, especially if he had to look at them to do so.

Kureno bowed from the door and nudged Kyo, to get him to enter the room. Kyo did not respond. In fact, he seemed almost frozen in space. Kureno nudged him again and whispered, "This is no time for dreaming! You're supposed to kneel in front of them. Don't forget to bow first."

Kyo gave a slight nod, walked to the center of the room, bowed, and then knelt down. Kureno noticed that the normally agile boy seemed to be slightly unsteady on his feet, but he did not blame him, after all, having two of the people who despised him the most in front of him would of course make him more than nervous. Kyo kept his head down, telling himself that the more respectful he acted, the more merciful they would be to him. Or at least, he hoped so. He only wished he could go back to his room as fast as possible, being around these people made him nauseous.

A harsh, mocking laugh broke the tense silence, and Kyo involuntarily stiffened, recognizing the laughter from his father. He was definitely in for it now. His hair stood on end. He only hoped that he would not do something as stupid as loose his temper, otherwise he really would be in trouble.

At that moment, his father spoke. "Well, if it isn't the monster cat," he said in a mocking tone. "Is it true that you actually did well for English?"

Kyo simply nodded. His throat, for some reason, felt clogged up, he could barely force any words out. Suddenly, he felt a sharp sting on his left cheek, and his head swung to the side with the force of the blow. He almost lost his balance, but he managed to save himself from falling over by pushing his hand against the ground to keep himself upright. Automatically, his other hand went up to his cheek and he winced when he touched it.

"Answer me when I talk to you," his father yelled at him.

Suddenly, Kyo found his voice again, though it was his anger that he had to thank for it. "Yes, I did do well," he hissed at his father. "You can see my exam paper if you want to. Oh wait, I forgot, you don't understand English, do you?"

This earned him another strike across that same cheek, but this time, it had been with such force that he lost his balance and ended up sprawled across the floor. Slowly, he got up again, and shot his father a challenging glare. He had to resist the smirk that was threatening to cross his face; he knew that he had sufficiently angered his father, especially since his father could not understand a word of English. He was better than his father in this regard, and his remark had probably hit home.

His father seemed to understand his silence, he jerked to his feet and stormed towards Kyo, meaning to grab the boy by the hair and fling him against the wall, when Hatori also stood up and placed a hand on the man's shoulder to hold him back. "This is not the time for another fight, especially in front of Akito-sama."

Kyo's father jerked out of Hatori's grasp and bowed in Akito's direction. "My apologies, Akito-sama," he said, in as calm a tone as he could manage, though one could hear the anger behind those words from the way his voice shook from time to time.

Akito smirked in Kyo's direction before turning back to Kyo's father. "Try not to let that monster bait you," he replied, loud enough so that Kyo could hear him. "He may talk big now, but when he graduates from High School, let's see how brave he is when he goes into the cage." He smirked in Kyo's direction. "It does how pathetic he really is."

Kyo clenched his fists to prevent himself from flying at Akito. He knew that Akito was right; he was going to be locked up by the time he graduated from High School. Even he doubted that he could beat rat-face. Rat-face was the best martial artist among his age group within the Sohmas, even though he had started learning about a year after Kyo himself started. Yet, he was still better at Kyo, he could practically defeat him in seconds, no matter how much Kyo had practiced beforehand.

His father smirked. "Well, then it's no use us being here, discussing this monster's future. After all, it has already been decided."

Kyo took a deep breath to calm himself down. If he kept quiet, he would soon be dismissed, and Hatori would probably tell Mayuko-sensei that he was not allowed to do Literature. It certainly was a better alternative than going through this whole scene for the second time. The sooner this whole thing ended, the better. Then he could go back to his pathetic life of avoiding family members and look forward to living in the cage for the rest of his life.

At that moment, Hatori cleared his throat. "Knowing how important English is, I'm sure that Kyo would stand a better chance making it to University if he is allowed to do Literature," He stated in a calm voice. Kyo stared at Hatori, half angry and horrified that Hatori was prolonging this whole meeting, and half hopeful that perhaps, he would get to do what he wanted. Once again, he felt furious at himself for letting himself hope that things would turn out for the better. Hatori pretended not to see the expression on Kyo's face, preferring instead to focus on Akito and Kyo's father.

There was a stunned silence on the part of both Akito and Kyo's father, before Kyo's father burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that he was literally rolling on the floor, and Kyo was sure that the whole compound could hear him. He flushed with both shame and embarrassment, knowing full well why he was laughing in the first place.

Finally, his father's laughter subsided into softer giggles and sighs. "That was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my entire life," he sputtered when he was finally able to regain his ability to speak coherently. "That monster, going to University! It will never happen, look at him!" He stood up, grabbed Kyo by the hair and forced his head up. Kyo bit his lip hard to stop himself from crying out, he felt as if his hair was being pulled out by its roots. "He'll be in the cage, thank heavens, and we won't need to bother about him ever again. Further education . . . hah! Let's not waste our time talking about something that would never happen."

He yanked Kyo upwards by his hair and this time, Kyo could not prevent a pained gasp from escaping his lips. He tried to struggle out of his father's gasp but his father was holding him too tightly, and when he tried to free himself, he felt as if his scalp was being burned off. He felt another sharp sting in his other cheek and yelped when it caused his scalp to hurt even more. He realized belatedly that he would have to think up another excuse to explain why his face was in such a condition when he went to school the next day.

The next thing he knew, he felt another hand grappling at his hair, and the pressure on his scalp lessened significantly, though it still ached. He looked up and saw that Hatori was holding his father back by grabbing both his wrists and forcing him against the wall. His father was still struggling and trying to get at Kyo, spitting curses as he tried to struggle out of Hatori's grasp.

Finally, his father stopped struggling. He wrenched his wrists out of Hatori's grasp and stalked out of the room, snarling over his shoulder, "I've got better things to do then waste precious time with that monster!"

Hatori shook his head, then settled down at his original position. Kyo did not say anything. Instead, he stared down at his wrists and bit his lip, hoping that he would be dismissed as soon as possible.

The tension in the room felt stiffing, and he could hardly breathe. Finally, Akito spoke. "Let that monster do whatever he wants," he said finally. "I too have better things to do than waste time." He glared at Kyo. "Get out of my sight!"

Kyo did not hesitate. He bowed, murmured a soft thank-you, and shot out of the room like a scalded cat.

Hatori looked straight at Akito. "Well, that was nice of you to allow him to do that subject."

At first, Akito did not say anything. Finally, she said, "Well, he only has about eighteen months before he goes into the cage."

"I see," Hatori replied. He got up. "I guess I better go and see to Kyo's bruises."

"That cat can take care of himself," she snapped. She grabbed his shirt and tried to pull him down to his knees. "Stay with me."

Hatori looked at her, and saw that despite the scowl on her face, her eyes spoke a different story altogether. He could go and see Kyo later; after all, he was seventeen years old, old enough to take care of himself. Anyway, she needed him far more than Kyo at the moment, since Kureno was nowhere to be found.

"Very well," he replied, and knelt down by her side.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi guys, welcome to yet another chapter of "Past and Present". Once again, thank you all so much for your reviews, I really, really appreciate it so much! Just reading though all your reviews gives me the motivation to continue with this story.**

**I bet all of you are wondering why my review replies are so late, or why even this chapter is so late as well. I have to admit that I haven't been working on my stories for a long time, for which I really have to apologise for. I guess school had really been getting very stressful, and I had no motivation to study for something I see no relevance in. It's not like I'm really going to use it anyway, which is why I would be transfering school. Any way, to cut a long story short, my lack of motivation ended up spreading to my stories as well. Now that I feel much better, I should be able to update more regularly.**

**Oh well, on with the show! I really hope that you guys like this chapter, because I cannot help feeling that something seems to be wrong, but I don't know what it is. If there's anything wrong with this, please let me know, so that I can improve on it. Thanks in advance, and have a nice day! **

Chapter 13

For some reason, Yuki was nervous. Here he was, standing in front of the cat room, with a small bag of rice balls. There were about five of them inside, and they each had Kyo's favourite filling, salmon. He had managed to buy them at the recent University fair, though he really wished that he could have asked Tohru to make them instead, since they would mean more to both of them. Yet, Tohru had always associated rice balls with Kyo for some reason, and he was afraid that he would remind her of what she had lost. He also was not sure of Kyo's reaction to Tohru's rice balls; it would probably make him feel even worse. Yet, it would be nice to reassure Kyo that Tohru was fine, if she was apparently still able to produce rice balls.

Why he was even visiting Kyo in the first place, he had no idea. It just came to him during one of the lectures he was attending. He had been sitting in the back, as usual, twirling his pen with his fingers when he was supposed to be taking notes. His lecturer had been talking about the catnip plant and had remarked that catnip seemed to have an effect on cats, and at the mention of cats, his thoughts immediately turned to Kyo.

Maybe he should pay a visit to Kyo. He himself knew how lonely it was to be on his own. Sure, he was allowed to attend University, but he still stayed in the Sohma compound. Even worse, he was now staying in Kureno's room because Kureno had left the compound. Lucky Kureno, his curse had been nonexistence ever since he turned eighteen. Now, he had no idea where Kureno was, much less, contract him on how he had managed to end the curse. It had only ended for Kureno, of course, everybody else was not as lucky.

Even worse, he had to have dinner with Akito, Hatori and Shigure every day. Yuki was the rat, he was supposed to be Akito's special favorite. It was a position that he could really do without, especially since it meant that he had to see Akito every day. If Kureno had still been there, he would have had to join them for dinner, and out of all the others, it was Kureno he was able to relate to the most. Kureno knew what it was like being a slave, having had to sleep with Akito from time to time, and he had been quite sure that it had been done against his will. Yet, he was not there, and Yuki was alone.

It was practically torture every night. At six in the evening, he would have to drop every thing he had been doing and go to Akito's rooms, where he would kneel at the table at Akito's right hand and wait for him to speak. Akito always asked him about his studies, and Yuki would reply that yes, everything was fine and dandy, he was doing well in school and all that rot. He was so afraid that Akito would make a mention of a certain girl, and that one day, he would be found out. It was torture just sitting there and pretending that everything was wonderful when inside, he was sure he would have a heart attack every time Akito said a word that started with the letter "M". Most recently though, Akito had seemed quite distracted, but he still remained wary; he still could not risk dropping hints involuntarily.

Perhaps, he came because he wanted to know whether Kyo was any worse off than him. He had always considered Kyo to be luckier than him, though he did suspect, from Tohru's words, that Kyo felt that he was the lucky one. He did not like to think of Tohru, she was suffering every bit as much as he was, and knowing that there was nothing he could do to give her what she really wanted, made him feel worse about himself. Sure, she still smiled and laughed, but he could not help feeling that something was lacking.

His conversation with Hatori had been interesting, to say the least. He had mentioned to Hatori that he wanted to visit Kyo, and Hatori had promised to make the necessary arrangements. He had no idea how Hatori had managed to arrange things, all he knew was that Hatori had told him that he could visit at this time and that the key would be hanging on the left hand side of the door. He had had thanked Hatori for his help and was just about to leave his office when Hatori called him back. "Your presence may actually be beneficial to Kyo," he had said. "At least, that's what I hope."

Yuki looked surprised. "Why?" he asked, "Kyo and I were not exactly friends." Even now, he was not sure how he was going to approach Kyo. There had been this rivalry between them, and now, he was not sure how Kyo was going to react to him. Why was he even doing this in the first place?

Hatori had sighed. "You will find that Kyo has . . . changed." He said. Yuki waited for more details, but Hatori was not forthcoming. Yuki rolled his eyes and left; Hatori just had to speak in riddles like he'd read of some of the wizards in Kyo's library, which had since disappeared. A certain 'Gandalf' came to mind and he had to hold back a snicker as he imagined Hatori in a grey cloak and a white beard, carrying a staff.

According to Hatori, there should be a key hanging upon a hook on the left side of the door. He searched around the door and sure enough, just hidden behind a wall of green creeping plants, was a little bronze key hanging on a hook. He took the key and slot it into the keyhole, twisting it. He heard the click of the lock, and the door slid open slightly. Then, he hesitated.

At first, he tried peering into the darkness behind the crack, but to no avail, he could not see anything. Then, he slid the door open, wide enough for him to slip in if he wanted to, and peered inside. He felt as if his heart was in his mouth, he had no idea what he was going to see, not even knowing what to expect. He saw a figure in a tattered yukata in the corner of the room. The figure had his face covered by his wrists; for some reason, his wrists seemed to be connected together; his left wrist seemed to be twisted at a rather odd angle, in line with his right wrist. Then, when nothing seemed to be happening, the figure lowered his wrists, and involuntarily, two pairs of eyes widened.

Yuki could only stare in shock. Kyo seemed so different from when he last remembered him. He remembered a fit young man with short orange hair but now, it seemed the opposite. His orange hair had a grayish tint, had he aged so fast? Wasn't he supposed to be the same age as Yuki? His arms, or what he could see of them since half of them were covered by the yukata, was so bony that they seemed almost misshapen. Kyo's eyes narrowed, and this, for some reason, gave Yuki enough courage to walk into the room, kneel down an arm's length in front of him, and place his gift in the space between them.

Now, he noticed that the grayish tint actually came from the dust in his hair, and that his wrists were tightly bound together by a thin leather cord. He almost vomited when he saw the state of Kyo's wrists, the leather cord seemed to be soaked in blood and the skin was puffy and swollen around it. Kyo's face was more lined that he remembered, too lined for a man of his age in fact. His eyes seemed mostly dead, but he could somehow see a hint of fire dancing in them. He found himself hoping that some of that fire was aimed at him; at least it would give him a sense of normality in something so unfamiliar.

Just when Yuki was about to open his mouth to say hello, Kyo spoke first. "What the hell are you doing here?" He demanded, still managing to sound bad tempered with a voice so hoarse that he would barely hear it.

Yuki could not help feeling relieved that Kyo had spoken first, because he had no idea whether he would end up saying anything that Kyo would take offense with. "I just came to see how you were," Yuki finally answered him.

Kyo turned his head to stare out of the window. "Figures that it would be my worst enemy who finally comes to see me."

Yuki simply shrugged; he did expect to still be seen as his worst enemy. "Akito is quite intimidating," was all he said. Kyo did not seem to have heard him, but he did see a slight quirk of the lips. An awkward silence seemed to fill the room. Yuki gazed down at his gift, wondering whether he had overstayed his welcome. He and Kyo had never been on good terms anyway. He was quite surprised to see that Kyo was actually talking to him. Was this what Hatori had meant by 'different'?

"How are you?" Yuki finally broke the silence. In answer, Kyo gave a particularly violent snort.

"How do you think I am?" he snapped.

Yuki felt his own anger rising. "Well, you could try to at least be more forthcoming when someone comes to see you because of their concern for you."

"You? Concerned for me? This have changed so much if that is the case." Kyo scoffed at that.

Yuki was almost tempted to smack him across the face at that, but the bitterness in Kyo's voice managed to quell the it. "This isn't getting us anywhere," he finally muttered under his breath. "Look," he finally snapped. "I came to give this to you and I'll leave once all this is done, happy?" Unceremoniously, he grabbed the plastic bag with the rice balls inside and dumped them on Kyo's lap.

For a split second, there was a look of surprise on Kyo's face before he managed to smother it back into something resembling a sulk. Slowly, he reached out with both his hands and opened the bag. His face paled and he stared straight at Yuki. "Was it . . .?" he stammered.

Yuki sighed. "No," he said, shortly.

Kyo's eyes narrowed. "You didn't make this, did you?" Yuki flushed with embarrassment. He knew what Kyo thought of his cooking. If it weren't for his compulsory meals with Akito as well as canteen food, he would have got food poisoning and died from it long ago.

"I got it from my university campus," he replied. "I promise that it isn't poisoned." He frowned. "Not that a stupid cat like you would know the difference anyway."

He smirked when he saw Kyo's eyes narrow even further. Kyo glared at him before unwrapping the rice ball and sniffing at it, only to flush with embarrassment when his stomach gave such a monstrous growl that he was sure practically everybody in the compound could have heard it. Then, he tucked in, gobbling up the rice balls so fast that it seemed like he was going to choke on it. He did the same with the other four remaining rice balls, until they were all gone. Yuki raised an eyebrow, but did not comment on it. To his surprise, he felt a surge of pity for the cat. He looked as if he had not eaten in what seemed like a few days, going by how loose his yukata appeared to be.

There was an awkward silence after Kyo finished eating. Kyo gazed at his bound hands in silence and Yuki was not sure what to say. "Aren't you going to thank me?" Yuki finally asked.

"Thanks," Kyo finally muttered and gave a slight shudder. Yuki stared in surprise. Kyo was not the kind of person who would thank someone after a good deed unless it was Tohru, and he was certainly not going to thank his rival of practically his whole life. Or at least, that was what he thought of Kyo. Kyo had been locked up ever since they both had graduated from high school and this was the first time he had seen him since his imprisonment.

It was then that he realised just how lucky he was compared to Kyo. Even if he was forced to stay in the main house, at least he was allowed to leave the compound from time to time. Kyo did not look like he had been allowed to leave the room itself, much less, the compound. He wondered how Kyo had been able to survive all those years locked up in a tiny room. He seemed so downtrodden, he could not help wondering how Kyo had been treated all this while. Kyo had always seemed to be a bubbling ball of energy when he was in high school, yet he seemed so dead now.

He had been so lost in his own thoughts that though he did hear Kyo's voice; he did not hear what Kyo had said. "You were saying?" he asked quickly.

Kyo scowled and glanced out of the window. "Will you get into trouble for visiting me?"

Yuki shrugged. "I highly doubt it. Hatori arranged everything anyway, and I doubt even Akito knows that I'm here with you." He sighed and glanced out of the window, noticing that the shadows were lengthening on the dusty floor. He was going to have to wash his pants that night. "I guess I should be going now, I don't want to get Hatori into trouble."

Kyo nodded, but did not say anything. Another awkward silence, before Yuki finally stood up and collected the plastic bag as well as the rice-ball wrappings and stuffed them into his pocket. He made his way to the door, but stopped outside of it, his hand on the door ready to close it. "I'll come and visit you again as soon as possible," he said to Kyo and to his surprise; found that he actually meant it. "Take care of yourself in the meantime."

Kyo's head immediately turned towards him and his eyes widened. Involuntarily, his mouth opened, as if he was going to say something but he clamped it shut before anything could be said. He gave a quick nod, and then turned away, his fists clenched. Yuki had to bit his lip as he slid the door closed, and locked it. He hated to leave Kyo in such a situation, but he knew he had no choice. Plus, he was not sure whether he could take seeing his one time enemy break down in front of him.

It was only when he was walking back to his room that he realised that throughout the whole time he had been with Kyo, their old rivalry had never even occurred to him. The only thing he had felt in there was pity, sadness and admiration for his old rival. He knew that Kyo's life could not have been easy, yet here he was still managing to survive. Now, he could not even remember why he hated Kyo in the first place. If it was because of the curse, then really, it was a stupid way of taking it out on each other then. Each of them was under the curse, shouldn't they concentrate on working with each other to find out how to end the curse, rather than fight against each other? Why could he not have realised it beforehand so he could have at least made an attempt to end the curse with the help of all his cousins, Kyo included?

This curse had to end; otherwise it would prove detrimental for all of them. There was so much to lose and yet, so much to gain. He would contact Momiji the moment he got to his room, Momiji would definitely be able to make use of the information he had. At least, there was something he could do now to help out in the efforts his cousin was making.


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi guys! Sorry for such a late update! I really meant to update this earlier, but I have been so caught up with school that I've hardly had time to think, much less, write. I haven't even updated my livejournal in such a long time as well; that shows just how busy I am. Don't worry though, I have no intention of giving up this story, or any of the stories that I have written, unless I have said so in the author's notes. Even then, I try not to. I get irritated when people just give up on their stories, and I hope that I don't put you guys through the same thing.**

**Oh yes, before I forget, I changed my pen-name. I used to be known as Celebrian Tinuviel but am now known as Celebee O'Tefeld.**

**Once again, thanks for all the reviews you guys have sent me, and for favouriting and putting me on alert. I really appreciate the effort you guys have put in, and it makes me even more motivated to write. It's a lovely feeling knowing that people out there are enjoying my work, and it is all thanks to you guys!**

**By the way, I am also looking for a beta reader for this story, someone who is familiar with both Vampire Knight and Fruits Basket, because there may be some Vampire Knight stuff in this as well. Please let me know if you know of any beta readers that are experienced in betaring such stories. It is extremely vital that I find a beta reader, because I would like some outside opinion on how to improve my stories. Thanks!**

**Well, that's about it for today. Hope you guys enjoy this, and please let me know of your opinions. Thanks!****

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**Chapter 14**

"Sohma-kun, you okay?" Kyo blinked, looked up, and found Isamu staring down at him. Isamu flung his bag in the seat behind Kyo. "Your book is upside down."

"Oh," Kyo looked back at his book and realised that Isamu was right. He scowled, closed the book, and placed it on his desk. He felt stupid; he had not even noticed that the book was upside down in the first place.

"What book is that?" Isamu asked curiously. He settled himself into his own seat and held his hand out for the book.

Kyo simply handed it to him. Isamu was quiet for a while, reading the back of the book, and then flipping through it, before handing back to Kyo.

"So when did you start getting interested in English anyway?" Isamu asked, out of curiosity. He could not help it; the idea of Kyo, bad tempered and prone to fights as he was, being interested in English was just too mind boggling to comprehend.

Kyo shrugged. "I don't know how I managed to do so well either. I've always liked the sound of the language, and it seemed . . . easy for me, I guess."

Of course, that was only half of the story. When he was much younger, and his mother was still alive, his mother had maintained a huge collection of English books. In fact, they were so numerous that they took up five whole bookshelves, and they were all as high as the ceiling. There were still some books crammed into spaces in the shelves as well, on top of the stacked books. While others were brand new, some were practically brown with age, had a musty smell, and seemed to be falling apart. Yet, his mother kept them all, and even read them sometimes, despite the musty smell.

He remembered that when his mother was not in the kitchen cooking, she would be curled up with a book in her favourite chair, directly next to the window. She never even looked up even when her name was called, until she had to be physically roused by either his father or one of the servants. Her eyes were fixated on the page; her only movements were to flip pages when she was finished with them, or to get up for a new book. She barely read any Japanese books even though she seemed extremely fluent in the language as well. Strangely, his mother had not an ounce of English blood in her, as he found out later, so it was considered a mystery among the family how she could be so proficient in the language.

The first time she introduced him to the language was the day after his forth birthday. As usual, he was kept holed inside the house, and as much as he wanted to go out, she refused to let him. She always said that he was too cute and she wanted to keep him inside so that she could preserve that cuteness, but of course, being a young child, and a boy at that, he could not except that as a reason.

He had been perched on a table right below the window; his mother had pushed the table near the window and had placed him on it. He had been crying insistently, tugging at her skirt and begging to go out, as usual. It only made him feel even more like a prisoner than before, because only seeing what he wanted to experience invariably made the confined feeling he had even worse.

He had stopped wailing, but he still sniffled from time to time, wondering when he would be released from his punishment. He tucked his knees as close to his body as possible, placed his chin on them, and stared at the window ledge. He steadfastly refused to look out of the window.



The next thing he knew, he felt the table creak. He looked up and saw his mother settle herself on the table as well, legs dangling over the edge, a book in her hand. She opened the book to a page, pulled out a bookmark, and began reading aloud. He had listened attentively, his tears forgotten. He had never heard that language before, and he could not understand a thing she was saying to him. It made him feels special; that his mother would share this language with him and not with his father.

She bought him a few simple books, and that was where he learnt to speak the language itself, as his mother would read them to him, and have him practice reading and writing on his own. The only time she did this, though, was when he cried over being caged at home. That year, she seemed to disappear from time to time, and only came when she heard his cries. Of course, his father did not know about it; he had never even heard his father speak a word of the language.

In a way, English did remind him of his mother, and he always remembered the very tone of her voice every time he cracked open an English book, even until now. Perhaps, that was why he always loved English books even if sometimes, he wondered why she had done it. Needless to say, that was probably why he continued to read in English, and also why he insisted on keeping those little child's' books that she had bought for him. He wondered if his mother would have been proud of him if she had heard that he had topped the class, and shook his head to get the image out of his head. He did not want to open up a whole closet full of skeletons.

It was then that he realised that Isamu was staring at him. "What?" he asked, annoyed.

Isamu sighed. He seemed to be on the verge of saying something, but quickly shook his head instead. He decided to change the subject; he could see that Kyo was frowning, and his fists were starting to clench. On the bright side, at least he wasn't shouting so much these days. Kyo seemed quieter, more . . . subdued, one frequently had to call him more than twice in order to get his attention. In fact, people were starting to look at him strangely in the hallways, and Kyo never even noticed those stares when ordinarily, he would have snapped at them and ended up getting into even more trouble. "So are you feeling better now?" he asked.

Kyo shrugged. "I'm fine. Why?"

"Well, you weren't in school yesterday," Isamu said.

That had been true. Two days before, just when he was getting read to sleep after his confrontation with his father and Akito, Hatori had come in with his medical supplies and treated the bruises on his face and told him that he was not going to school the next day. He had sat up to insist on going to school, which had been a big mistake because his head swam. He squeezed his eyes shut to get rid of the feeling. "You can just give me something to make me feel better anyway, aren't you a doctor?"

Hatori frowned. "I can always tell the servants that you're sick and to be left alone and you will not need to be in their presence when they bring food to you. You have a high fever right now, and you need the rest. I am not going to take no for an answer."

It was not that, Kyo wanted to insist. He just wanted out of the bloody place, but he did not think he had the energy to fight it out with Hatori, especially with that frown on Hatori's face. Finally, he just glared at Hatori and nodded grudgingly. To his surprise, there was a worried look on Hatori's face when he gave Kyo a slight pat on his shoulder and stood up to leave. Kyo wanted to scream. Once again, he had done something wrong, and he did not even know what he did.

True to his word, Kyo was not disturbed for the entire day. He spent most of the day sleeping, only stumbing out to eat when the smell of food woke him up, though he made sure only to emerge when the maid left. The only other interruption was when Hatori came in during the late 

afternoon to give him a check and to proclaim him in good health and that he could go to school the next day.

Kyo almost jumped out of his skin when something suddenly appeared in his line of sight. He realised that Isamu was waving his hand in front of his nose. Instinctively, he batted Isamu's hand away with a snarl and buried his face in his hands. He really was out of it that day. Isamu sighed again. "Are you sure you're all right? You just zoned out on me just now. Maybe you should just go home and rest again."

At that moment, they heard a voice behind them say, "Sohma-san?" Kyo turned, relieved at the interruption so that he did not have to face Isamu's concern. However, his relief was short-lived when he saw Kinoshita Minami standing behind him. She was probably going to compare him with rat-face again.

For a second, both of them just stared at each other, until Kinoshita quickly cleared her throat and looked away. "You were not in school yesterday," she said finally. "Are you feeling better now?"

Kyo blinked, and wondered whether he had stepped into another dimension. Normally, the only people who did care about whether Kyo had come to school or not were Uotani Arisa and Hanajima Saki. Yet, he could not get over the feeling that the two girls were only worrying for Tohru's sake, because according to Uotani, Tohru had been in such a panic every time he skipped school that they just had to make sure that he was well again so that he would not worry Tohru. It was sweet of them, he knew, though it would have been nice to be cared for his own sake. Even the damn rat had Haru. Haru always disappeared to look for him every time he reached school.

It had actually felt nice being cared for, and instinctively, his lips curled upwards, albeit slightly because he was still not used to using those muscles. Kinoshita, who had just been beginning to frown, began to relax as well, and a small smile graced her face.

Kyo knew he had to say something though. He quickly racked his brain, then shrugged and said, "Yeah, much better now. Thanks," he added quickly.

This time, Kinoshita smiled at him. "That's good. Anyway, yesterday we had our first Literature class, and we'll be having one again after school today. Mayuko-sensei told me to tell you that you're in the class, and that you had better attend otherwise she'd call your cousin again. Wait, those were her words, not mine," she added, backing away as quickly as she could when she saw Kyo jerk upwards and began sputtering incoherently.

"Oh," Kyo trailed off, sheepishly. At that moment, the door opened and he saw the damn rat, followed by Tohru, Uotani and Hanajima, enter the classroom. Kinoshita blushed, squealed, and began making her way towards the damn rat. He rolled his eyes and glanced towards Isamu, smirking when he saw that Isamu had the same reaction as him.

"She seemed so sensible just now," Isamu muttered to Kyo. "Of course, the moment Yuki-san's name is even mentioned; everything goes flying out of the window."

Kyo snorted and was just about to reply when Tohru spotted him. "Kyo-kun!" she squealed and rushed towards him, tripping over a table leg just as she reached him. When she started to topple over, Kyo jumped up and managed to yank her back upright with a firm grip on her collar.



"If you will just watch where you're going next time!" he snapped at her. "One day, you're going to hurt yourself and if none of us are there to help you . . ." he trailed off and glanced at her to see if she was angry.

Either she was ignoring what he just said, or she did not even hear him because her grin grew even wider. "Kyo-kun, are you better? How come you missed school yesterday?" She reached up and felt his forehead. Instinctively, Kyo felt his face redden when her hand brushed against his forehead. They were standing so close to each other that they were practically touching. She gazed into his eyes and brushed so hard that he was sure that she was going to spontaneously combust into flame. She muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like a stuttered apology and fled to Uotani and Hanajima, who immediately turned to glare at him.

Uotani started to stalk towards him, but Tohru tugged on her arm and tried to pull her back, sounding so panicked that he was sure that he would not be able to catch what she was saying. It seemed to work though, because Uotani turned back to her seat, though not before sending a hard glare in Kyo's direction, which he was too preoccupied to respond to.

Kyo was not sure how, but he somehow sensed that something had changed. What it was, he did not know.

He heard chuckles from behind him and he turn to glare at the offender, who turned out to be a rather hysterical Isamu. "Your face is as red as a tomato!" Isamu sputtered, hardly able to keep the laughter out of his voice. "In fact . . ."

At that moment, the door opened again, and this time, Mayuko-sensei walked hurriedly into the room. "Sorry I'm late," she said quickly, as she closed the door behind her. "One student had a panic attack in the hall and we had to get help for her." She glanced around the room and her voice took on a more businesslike tone. "Well, what are you waiting for then? I'm about to begin the lesson."

Kyo moved towards his seat and sat down, stunned. He had not even heard the bell ring. Shishou would definitely tease him if he had been there. He wrecked his brain, trying to think of exactly what he had been doing ten minutes ago, yet the only thing that came to mind was his . . . moment with Tohru. Surely they had not been standing there for ten minutes straight? His classmates would have reacted if that was the case.

Then, Mayuko-sensei started speaking, and he quickly forced himself to pay attention. At the very least, it would be effective in keeping Tohru out of his mind, or so he hoped. He did not want to dwell on it. He knew that he would soon be in the cage, and having a relationship right now would not only hurt him, but her as well. He forced himself to stare at the page, and listen to Mayuko-sensei's voice, forcing all thoughts of Tohru out of his mind.


End file.
